With two weekends now left before Christmas downtown merchants and pavement vendors say the wave of consumer spending which they expect to precede the holidays is yet to materialise.
Investors with considerable stocks of seasonal goods including curtains, artificial flowers, decorative lights, ornaments, toys and gift items and household appliances on hand say that they are waiting anxiously for the anticipated tidal wave of shopping to ‘wash over’ the capital and ease their nerves.
All last week there was evidence of throngs of people in some of the city’s key downtown shopping areas including