Sales make the business world go around.

The month of December can be extremely busy for some people and companies, and for others, it is a time to kick back, close off for the holidays and tie up some loose ends. Even though the recession had slowed spending, the stores, restaurants, and parking lots are now showing something very different.

I try to read the economic reports about Canadian statistics concerning our GDP, stock markets and debt, but most of them confuse me. Truthfully, I was never really a great student, I got bored pretty easily, and now I seem to glaze over when I try to read these reports! Not very patriotic of me I guess, but I am a very proud Canadian nonetheless. What I have learned is that our economy is driven by our confidence in our ability to spend.

I do feel we are improving as a society if we feel comfortable at the malls during the holiday season, or having lunches, expensive coffees, or dinners out with friends and family. Maybe we have been awakened slightly over the past couple of years, making sure we have the cash to spend before we spend it. I see the labour reports and clearly most of our population is working, and for those who are not, there is help, we are Canadian. The numbers may not be in yet for the Christmas spending season but we can clearly see that people are buying! That is good for all of us because companies stay in business if we support them.

Money goes around and around, which keeps our economy moving along in the right direction. I am one of those crazy people who are happy to see the gas prices go up, because I know that means oil and gas companies can grow and expand, hire more people, pay big wages, and pay all the service companies that rely on them. I love to see the stores packed, long lineups, and no parking spaces, because that also means great things for our economy! Remember the days when we complained about all the stores and restaurants with help wanted signs up, and no one around to serve us? Don’t we miss those days?

I look forward to each Christmas season to see how many sales are happening, how many lineups there are, and how much cash we have to spend. A true testament to the direction our economy is going is to open your eyes and watch what is happening right in front of us.