With the holiday shopping season extending for weeks, if not months, before Christmas, are end-of-year sales still a Finnish post-holiday fixture?
"Before Black Friday began in Finland, sales used to start after Christmas, and people really were waiting for them," Paula Pessi of the Consumers' Union of Finland told Yle News.
A few decades ago, according to Pessi, Finland saw two major annual sales: one after Midsummer in June and the other following Christmas.
During this time of year, with most of the leftovers gobbled up, people would emerge from their homes to stock up on winter clothing and sporting equipment, such as skis and skates.
"In the pre-internet era, people were scouring newspapers and catalogues for deals after Christmas," Pessi explained. "Nobody is waiting for that Anttila catalogue [former department store chain] anymore. Finnish culture used to be more homogenous."
Today, it's mostly older consumers who are watching for end-of-year deals.
Old habits die hard
The numbers still tell a story of December being the biggest retail month of the year, with sales increasing by about one-fifth compared to monthly averages throughout the year, according to seasonal data published by Statistics Finland.
"In terms of turnover, seasonal variation has been similar," Leevi Ahonen of Statistics Finland said via email. "We can clearly see seasonally repeated peaks in December and drops in January."
At the same time, in a 24/7 economy, younger shoppers are used to getting what they want when they want it online. But whether post-holiday markdowns are in the physical or digital realm, Pessi encourages consumers to keep a cool head.
"After all, sales exist to create needs you didn't know you had. If it's on sale and you need it, that's great," she said. "Make a shopping list and stick to it."
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While polls increasingly indicate that young adults have serious concerns about the environment, Pessi of the Consumers' Union pointed out that when it comes to young consumers, they're not a homogenous group.
She noted that over a third of November's online purchases shipped via Post Nord to Finland were returned. "These are mainly young women returning clothing," she said.
"I wish we'd see more considerations for the environmental side of things. From an environmental perspective, younger people should be very aware of the toll of excessive shopping, so there's definitely a contradiction."
This festive season, people in Finland reported planning to spend an average 557 euros on Christmas purchases, a two-euro increase from last year, according to a poll by retail bank Nordea.
The survey found that it has become increasingly common to gift second-hand items over the holidays. It also picked up on a rising "trend" of people valuing time spent together, as consumer habits shift back to services after the pandemic era's focus on physical goods.
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