Queues for trolleys outside Dunnes Stores ahead of Christmas shopping - has the country gone mad?

Another year of crazy Christmas consumerism has just wound down - and we hardly have time to draw breath before the January sales hysteria descends. 

Every year the pre-Christmas panic arrives, with people queuing just to get their hands on that precious item - a shopping trolley - at Dunnes Stores and every other supermarket in the country. 

The 'big shop' before Christmas sees that tunnel vision descend on those in charge of the shopping trolleys which are packed to capacity with all necessary items - and almost certainly unnecessary ones - as people act as if an impending Armageddon is nigh. When in reality supermarkets are about to close for two days. 

And there is now also the safety-net of garage forecourt stores across the country remaining open for the entire Christmas Day. I personally spotted about 10 cars in the forecourt of a local Applegreen store on Christmas evening.

Whatever people required to shop for on the evening of Christmas Day is beyond me - but one can only imagine it was cigarettes, batteries, a bottle of Lucozade or whatever other item it is that they are now convinced that they cannot go one day without. 

Shopping mania in the lead up to one day of potentially almost unbearable scarcity - Christmas Day - is not even a recent phenomenon. One time as a student I helped a guy who had a milk round in the few days leading up to Christmas for some extra income. Honestly, you couldn't keep the shelves stocked and people would almost rip the litres of milk from your hands. 

This year, I even heard of someone ringing their family members at around 6am on one of the days leading up to Christmas from Dunnes Stores, looking for their vouchers to use at the till. 

Even in the weeks before the festive season, Irish people were splashing the cash like it was going out of fashion. 

Despite its renown as being a mean county, Cavan saw spending rise by 11% in the fortnight leading up to Christmas compared to the same period in 2022, figures released by bank of Ireland showed.

Donegal, Kildare and Longford all saw rises of 9%, while spending in Dublin, Galway and Waterford also saw significant increases when compared to last Christmas.

Total countrywide spend this year increased by 8%, with social spending rising by 7% overall and retail spending up 4%. 

Spending on toys also jumped in that period, with a 9% increase.

At least we had a bit of relaxation also, as people 'went to the pictures' in December.  There was a large 65% increase in the spending on people going to the movies in December.

The mantra 'it's just one day' certainly does ring true. But every year pandemonium sets in that we won't have bought enough in time for a day or two, despite fridges and freezers being full to the brim. And then we will rinse and repeat and do the same next year.