Anyone who comes to Landshut these days might feel like they are in the pre-Christmas mood: in some streets – including around the parish of St. Martin – there are fairy lights hanging overhead. Autumn has only just begun with the leaves coming in and there are still a good seven weeks until Christmas Eve.
But November begins the most important time of the year for Bavaria’s city centers in general and retail in particular. Christmas business has often saved lousy balance sheets. In recent years marked by Corona, it has become even more important in order to at least somewhat compensate for pandemic-related sales losses. At that time, the Bavarian Trade Association saw thousands of companies in distress at times. There were increasing reports from the city centers about vacancies: about gaps where shop after shop used to be lined up.
Luckily it wasn’t that bad in the end. The financial situation is still said to be tense in some places, it is said that the reserves from before are not yet back. But now Christmas is coming. And if you take another, recently celebrated festival as a benchmark, things could be going quite well from an industry perspective: Revenues of 77 million euros were expected for Halloween in Bavaria – significantly more than the 51 million euros from the pre-Corona year 2019.
What is more foreseeable, however, is what will likely lie under many Christmas trees again. Vouchers have long been very popular; In a survey by the German Trade Association last year, 30 percent of those surveyed said they would give some away. A value that no other product group could match – perhaps because vouchers have a big advantage: if necessary, they can be obtained three hours before the gift is given. Why the Christmas countdown starts ticking seven weeks beforehand can be seen as a great mystery to humanity.