2013 report card puts seasonal shopping down on previous year

Vendors’ Arcade this week

With the year now almost two weeks old downtown traders are reflecting on the fortunes of the season just past.

Christmas is by far the most universally celebrated holiday. More than that, the season extends itself over two weeks and is attended by considerable investment in entertainment and revelry. Christmas customarily unleashes a ferocious spending spirit.

The conventional retail traders are serious about Christmas. They are forever hopeful that each Christmas will bring a significant windfall. This year, the price of gold and the construction boom across the city might have created a false sense of affluence, so that from as early as September the containers had begun to arrive—mostly from the