Heavy Australian Christmas Shopping

Northern Advocate, 21 December 1945, Page 9

Heavy Australian Christmas Shopping

SYDNEY, This Day. Christmas spending in Australia this year has been very heavy. Bank officials estimated that New South Wales spending alone will exceed £2,000,000. They said that more than half of this amount would come from bank accounts. The President of the Retail Traders’ Association said that shopping crowds were probably no greater than in recent years, but shoppers were spending more freely. In most departments of big retail stores the demand has exceeded the supply. There will be ,a severe shortage of merchandise after Christmas because stocks are being depleted and power rationing has brought manufacturing to a standstill. People are spending freely on the small stocks of jewellery, china and crystal ware available. DOLLS HEADS SHORT This year there has been a marked swing away from “war” toys and a return to the pre-war type of toy. The shipping strike has caused a shortage of dolls’ heads in Sydney and power restrictions will mean that fewer mechanical and other toys are available for Christmas stockings this year. The manager of a Sydney firm which does a big trade in dolls, said that the shipping strike had prevented the delivery of 24,000 plastic dolls’ heads from New Zealand. Australia, had relied on New Zealand this year for metal non-mechanical toys because restrictions on toy manufacture had been lifted earlier in New Zealand than in Australia. Some Australian factories which had ceased war production had been delayed in their reconversion to toy manufacture by a shortage of power and raw materials.