Ive been doing some very early Christmas shopping. Well, not exactly, more like window shopping. Im hoping that, this time round, my usual mad buying panic will have the benefit of some early research – to see what goodies are on offer and if the future recipients will like them.

Now I noticed that on a quiet mid weekday, my nearest Marks and Sparks was well supplied with shoppers. They have a tasty array of Christmas presents, both edible and not, and there was interest from the punters. I also noticed that the queues at the till were longish.

Now this suggests to me that Marks and Sparks may continue to do well, even if many of us find money is not quite as plentiful as it was. The length of the queues to pay up told me that the store might have a cool Yule.

Now some other stores I went round were less busy. I will not be buying shares in them. Of course, I am talking about one smallish town in South Wales. It might be that we have different shopping needs than the rest of the country. Though I doubt it, dont you?

People seems to like Marks and Sparks. There most recent figures were rather good and the share price didnt plummet. Yet, over the years, they have been a fairly weak investment for me. I remember that years and years ago, I bought the shares for £3 each. Theyre not that much more now and there have been some nasty lurches backwards from time to time.

I would have done better to put the loot into a building society. But we are talking ancient history now. And that should never impinge on todays story. Past failures and successes do not mean that history will repeat itself in Crazyland. And it seems to me the Marks and Sparks story might be brighter now. However, I wont invest more in them, because I still fear that money might get even tighter – as government cuts begin to bite, as they must surely do to offset the huge national debt. God bless.