Why so much spending for holidays?

I have been out to the shops today to get some required bits for our holiday, that is what prompted this post and my shock at the amount of money that was being spent! I am really looking forward to my holiday in Italy and it is something we have planned for. My parents are coming to take care of the dogs and I went out to the shopping mall today as my oldest son needed some trousers, youngest needed sunglasses and light slip on sneakers, plus sun cream.  That was all we really needed and I had got some trousers for my younger son to take with us last week which were greatly reduced from £25 to £5.  I know people like to have nice things to take on holiday but the sheer volume of what some people were throwing into their baskets was just unbelievable!  I was off work today as school closed yesterday but the shopping centre was packed, is everyone off today?

This is what I saw

 The school holiday is next week so there were lots of people buying for holidays and I could hear a few conversations as I stood in the que but do people really need so much new  stuff?  All you hear on the news is about how everyone is struggling to pay bills and mortgages due to all the price increases and yet go to any shopping centre and I'm sure you will see loads of people loaded up with bags. Many of  those people will be unemployed.  Ok I'm making assumptions but this is based on conversations with people, parents of children etc who complain about their finances and then buy unnecessary things, tell me that their children would never wear clothes from a certain shop (What??) or make sure their children have  a new outfit for every single kids party, disco or whatever.  It is I know, none of my business and I  want my children to have what they need, however I work for it and I don't buy excessive amounts of anything I feel for myself or them.  I will be hemming a couple of pairs of trousers later down into shorts that are a bit short in the leg but are still good, I will be taking away with me some of my refashioned clothes and I will be very grateful that I am in a position to able to travel.

Looking forward to seeing this

 Florence

I hope to have lots of images to share when I get back, we are just going for 5 days as the flights worked out so much cheaper to go Sunday to Thursday  as I always need to travel in school holidays. We also booked it all back in September and we have found that the hotel is really expensive for anyone booking last minute.  

I hope all the people out doing their insane mad shopping trips today also enjoy their holidays  and haven't ran up too much debt to spoil it all when they get back.