Consuming with confidence

Walking along the Columbia Road Flower Market this past Sunday, signals abounded that Britain was facing its worst Christmas in twenty-five years. Where were all the fresh-faced, nappy valley couples towing the latest Maclarens looking down nose at the pallid, hung-over Shoreditch hipsters shouldering Muji's 'no label' label canvas man bags? Could the slump have hit London's blazoned gentrifiers? Surely not. After all, John Lewis is up 6% on last year thanks to proud middle-class homeowners lapping up plasma tellies for their sitting rooms.

Yet another statistic that fails to account for my demographic: the single white female with a flair for buying impractical shoes that never get worn and forking out £38 for the high street's answer to botox - even if it means not eating for a week. Where is the CPI that adjusts for late-night TopShop rampages and Thresher coupon abuse? Economists that undertake a so-called 'rigorous' analysis of the retail market underplay the real variable: irrational behaviour. Some stodgy, middle-aged, brown-suited academic heralds phenomenon such as the "internet" and "unseasonable weather" for why we are not inspired by this season's ankle boots and tartan mini-skirt trend (when maybe just a subconscious revulsion to resembling Paris Hilton is the reality).

So, thankfully for us credit empowered, statistic skewing Christmas shoppers not deterred by soaring energy prices and inflationary pressures, there are two late-night shopping nights on East End trend-central, Columbia Road, this week. The stores usually only open on market Sundays are offering up two weekday nights of shopping, mulled wine, mince pies, carolling and loads of non-GDP bearing festive cheer.

When: 6 and 7 December, 5 – 9pm.
Where: Columbia Road, E2.

Favourite shops:
Perfume: Angela Flanders
Lights: Columbia Lights
Tea & cakes: Treacle World
Hats: Fred Bare
Recycled glassware:Milagros
Tapas: Laxeiro