Washington - (AFP) - Christmas decorations occupied store shelves in the United States after spending a full year in warehouses, as their launch in the market in 2021 was delayed due to difficulties in supply operations, and retailers, who are in a hurry to get rid of them, hope to be able to sell them. This year, despite inflation , which reduces the purchasing power of Americans.

"It was very difficult last year to get enough (Christmas) trees and decorations to meet our customers' requests and send them to them," said Chris Butler, CEO of the National Tree website, which specializes in selling artificial Christmas decorations and trees.

"As for this year, the matter is somewhat different, as we have large quantities of them in the stores," he continued in an interview with Agence France-Presse, noting that the stores of retailers or manufacturers of decorations are filled with a very large number of Christmas trees and colored ribbons, because these Goods arrived too late last year.”

As for games, the situation is similar to that of holiday decorations. "We have gone from not having enough products to a situation where we have too many of them," says James Zane, editor-in-chief of the specialized "The Toy Book" website.

A year ago, shipping dates were extended further because there were not enough containers to transport products made in Asia across oceans.

Once near the American coast, ships would wait outside ports due to a shortage of labor to unload their cargo and a shortage of drivers to deliver goods to retailers.

This resulted in Christmas trees arriving in stores during January or February.
The Coles supermarket chain preferred to keep the late-arrived decorations rather than sell them at discounted prices at the beginning of spring.

At a conference organized by the "Goldman Sachs" financial group in September, its director, Gil Tim, said that "Santa Claus, snowmen and Christmas trees are not witnessing major changes."

And since the quantities stored represent amounts of money, it is certain that the merchants will keep the holiday decorations for an additional year.

However, inflation has been recorded since Christmas 2021.

In a September statement, Costco's chief financial officer noted that the prices of trees purchased last year remain "slightly lower" than those arriving this year, even when accounting for storage costs and benefits.

American consumers are facing a rise in prices at the fastest rate in forty years, as inflation reached 8.2% on an annual basis, and the solution does not bear any positive results because it requires slowing down economic activity, which carries the risk of causing an economic recession.

With the situation they're in, "consumers may not be spending as much" on holiday decorations, says Chris Butler.

Lynn Franco of the Conference Board Institute for Economic Research notes that inflation will continue to "severely (...) affect sales, which could make the holiday season difficult for retailers."

And with stocked decorations, "limited demand could lead to sharp price cuts that would squeeze their profit margins."

Retailers and logistics service providers usually prepare at this time of the year to launch the holiday season.

However, due to the "weakness recorded in consumer demand" and "stocked goods" in stores, "the volumes of shipped goods decreased and the cost of shipping decreased," according to Oren Klashkin, an economist at Oxford Economics.

And with inflation, the prices of games increased by “about 15%” compared to those recorded during the 2021 season, according to James Zane. He says, "Families who are already facing difficulties as a result of the high prices of food and fuel will be affected by the high prices of games."

Consequently, toy manufacturers, including Hasbro (one of its most prominent products are Monopoly, Nerf guns and dolls that embody the characters of the Transformers films), must adapt to the low purchasing power of parents.

"We noticed that the middle-class consumer became more and more price sensitive during the year," says Hasbro CEO Chris Cox, noting that the importance of promotions "has grown even more."

Mattel, which manufactures Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys, confirms that it will provide more discounts as the holiday season approaches.