It looks like Christmas Shopping has started this weekend

I hope you’ve had a nice weekend and I’m wondering if you’ve started your Christmas shopping yet.  On Saturday morning I made the mistake of thinking I’d just pop into Norwich City Centre to do a little shopping only to find that the traffic was at Christmas levels and it took ages to get in and out of the City.  I got home and looked at Twitter and I saw similar reporting coming in from across the country.  The theory is that last weekend we enjoyed the Indian-summer with many having bar-be-ques out in their gardens and the shops were empty.  This weekend the weather was much more seasonal and after a week of not shopping everyone went shopping at once to try and find something warm to wear for the winter and I suspect to start Christmas shopping.

The Christmas catalogues have started to arrive.  This years Christmas Next Directory arrived last week like clockwork on exactly the same weekend as last year.

Christmas Planning Tip: If you see something in a store or in a catalogue that you really want to buy for Christmas I would really recommend that you order it sooner rather than later.  Retailers are having a difficult year and you can bet that they won’t be carrying any more stock than they are certain they can sell, so if an item is popular there is a good chance they will sell out well before Christmas this year.

The Mothercare Christmas 2011 catalogue has also arrived.  It’s packed with lovely gift ideas for Children and I know the Grandparents will enjoy looking through this and wondering what to buy.

I’ll let you know as I receive Christmas catalogues this year and will try and highlight anything which I think is new or extra special.  If you’ve seen something that you think is amazing do let me know in a comment below.

Tags: Christmas Shopping, Mothercare, Next Directory

The Christmas Next Directory arrived this morning.

83 Days until Christmas and for many now just two pay days to go until Christmas Day.   I was laying in bed and heard someone outside coming up my driveway and then go away again, then moments later an e-mail turned up on my Blackberry from Next to say that they had just delivered their Christmas Directory.  It takes a lot to impress me but you have to admire companies who can pull off that type of ‘customer service magic’.

Anyway here in Norwich it’s a lovely sunny morning, so I’m planning to make myself a cup of coffee and spend an hour or two sitting in the conservatory flicking through their new Next Directory for Christmas Gift inspiration.   I couldn’t resist an initial look with my tea and toast at breakfast and some of their Christmas decorations have caught my eye.  I also like the look of the Archos tablet computer, which looks a lot like an iPad but costs just £180 which would be ideal to leave in the kitchen for checking things on the web, posting blog updates and checking e-mails.

Finally I noticed that the package included a letter addressed directly to me saying that they are now accepting orders for next day delivery right up until 9pm, which again is amazing and magical customer service.  I guess this letter is customised and they don’t offer such a late cut off for next day delivery across the whole country but it’s worth checking what they are doing in your area.

Tags: Customer Service, Next Directory