On the penultimate day of this year’s Christmas markets, the sub zero temperatures have lifted, and there are clear, ice-blue skies above St Ann’s Square. This time last year, things were a little different.
Just when we thought that there was light at the end of the tunnel following the emotionally exhausting Coronavirus lockdowns, the emerging Omicron variant threatened to plunge us back into another bleak Christmas.
Micki Kristi, a decade-long Christmas Market veteran who runs the offshoot stall of The Manchester Shop in Afflecks Palace, remembers it well. “Last year was really weird. Everyone had just come out of lockdown, and they thought they might be going back into it,” she tells the Manchester Evening News.
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“It was the first opportunity people had had to socialise, so it was weird. Like people were panic-buying, they just wanted to be outside, and there was still an element of fear there, so it’s hard to measure it against that.”
This year, business for her has been much improved. “It’s been great,” she goes on. “And we’ve been busy. Nothing to grumble about at all. People aren’t spending as much money, but they’re being more considerate about what they’re buying. They’re putting more thought into it, and taking their time. That’s nice to see.
“So it’s been positive, and we’ve noticed loads more tourists this year. Whatever the tourism office is doing abroad, it’s working. It’s been phenomenal. Lots more people from America, lots more people from China, lots more people from Spain. The markets are a massive draw.”
Joe and Danielle are manning Pure Indulgence, a stall that hits the senses long before you see it with its multi-coloured bath bombs and neon soaps. While it’s not been a bad year, they have most certainly noticed an abundance of caution among shoppers. And a lot more haggling.
“People are behaving like traders now!” Danielle laughs. “‘Can you do it for a bit less?’ But they’re also looking first, then going around to other stalls to see if it’s worth it, and maybe coming back a few days later. They’ll pick something up, ask the price and then think about it. Normally people are like ‘yeah, I’ll have four.’
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“Everyone has put their prices up, we’ve kept ours the same for the past three years. So we have a lot of regulars, people who have been coming back for years and years."
“Last year was better,” says Joe. “Because we were back after lockdown, we experienced a big boom, but with the cost of living crisis this year, people are coming, but they’re not spending. It’s not been bad, by any means. Booze stalls and food have done brilliantly. Porky Pig constantly has a queue.”
While the ‘big dogs’ might be cleaning up, smaller food operators, like Kebab Haute on Exchange Square, are still battling with 30% to 40% increases in raw materials, coupled with train strikes, which have caused a decrease in footfall.
“It’s still been a good year, but factors outside of our control have affected people coming out,” says owner Hamza Imran, who had a stall on Piccadilly Gardens last year. “I’m a small fish, but it’s a lower take for me. It’s the cost of living I put it down to. People simply can’t afford to eat out as much. And there’s electricity and gas. Crazy.”
Behind the soap stall, craftswoman Barbara Runkel, who makes beautifully hand-carved wooden mobiles, decorations and jigsaws, and who works all year for the Christmas trading period, tells me it will be her last. She’s been at the markets since ‘the year dot’. For her, her final year here has been difficult.
“Things have been down for me,” she says. “Perhaps unsurprisingly. Significantly so. People are worried about spending money, and there’s hardly any impulse buying. Food sales have apparently been good. They act as a double function, people need to eat, and it acts as a gift too. Nobody actually needs what I sell.”
It’s a sign of the times, perhaps. “People simply have other priorities. Those that feel the prices are fair, they still can’t justify spending the money on non-essential things.”
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