On today’s program we will look at the Christmas season. How has consumer spending been affected given all the events that took place this year? and the European Super League is back on the table. Will they finally get the green light to form that sought after new league?
Its considered the most wonderful time of the year. The malls are decorated with Christmas lights and vibrant Christmas trees and even Santa Claus has his time where all the little children gather around and tell him there wishes for Christmas. Aside from that, it is normally one of the biggest seasons for retailers who go all out in their decorations and stock up on items sold, as history has proven that over time for this one period in time, consumers tend to spend more than average throughout the entire year. Given the recent onset of events that have been happening in the world since 2020, maybe traditions are changing.
In the United States, spending is expected to be reduced for the Christmas period compared to previous years. Prices have still been relatively high for 2023, up about 19% since the pandemic started and so this has caused a great reduction in the holiday spending for Americans. Many of who believe that inflation is actually a bigger problem than unemployment, immigration and even crime. Consumers are expected to spend on average US$875 with about US$620 being spent on gifts and $255 being spent on seasonal items such as decorations, sweets or food. The Thanksgiving weekend on the other hand saw an increase of about 4 million shoppers from it’s previous year total 200.4 million consumers over the 5 day shopping fest.
On to Jamaica and the Christmas season is actually approached differently. A popular news site Jamaica Information Service (JIS) has in fact created a guide for this Christmas season in which they titled “Christmas Spending Tips”. But just like the rest of the world, Christmas spending is expected to be reduced in the nation.
2 years ago there were talks about engaging the best of the best football clubs across Europe and forming an exclusive league that would have no relegation and no new entries. 12 of the best clubs across England, Spain and Italy were invited to join and be a part of this new and revolutionary vision that would change football as we know it today. This is no other than the European Super League. A new proposition was put forward by the ESL formation body, A22, created to assist and develop the league, shared that they will have a mid-week competition that will encompass 64 men football teams and 32 female teams. Research suggested that the EU’s top court shared that FIFA and UEFA abused their dominance to prevent clubs from joining a European Super League, though the formation may still not be approved as the court did rule on it specifically.