By Sam Rucker, with Ed Holt, Ella Duggan, Charmaine Wong

For local retailers, this should be “the most wonderful time of the year” but with an all-too-real cost-of-living crisis, the run-up to this Christmas is likely to prove much less profitable than most.

With 67 per cent of people “extremely concerned about the rising cost of living,” nearly half of Brits vowed to spend less this Christmas, according to EY data released last week.

Analysing Google’s mobility data, we found that Croydon has seen the largest decrease in foot fall for recreation and retail. Throughout September and October footfall was 20 per cent below the the baseline. Tower Hamlets has been least affected out of all the Eastlondonlines boroughs, only seeing an 8 per cent decrease in the same time period.

Richard Lim, from Retail Economics, told the BBC that he expected this shopping season to be a more “muted affair”: “Inevitably, I think what we’re going to see is consumers being much more careful with their spending.”

Eastlondonlines asked local Londoners how they are feeling about the looming festive period:

Qwasi Kumi, 47, an assistant at a luxury clothing store in Whitgift Shopping Centre, said: “Sales have gone down by about 50 per cent since last year, luxury goods are the first things people don’t buy.” He added: “The price of everything has gone up, electricity used to cost £300 and now it costs £1,300.”

Paddy Dalton, a 25-year-old bartender in Brick Lane, is usually a fan of Black Friday but “didn’t do anything for that this year.” Dalton, originally from the Republic of Ireland, said: “For the run-up to Christmas, I have slightly less money so I think I have to be cuter with it. I usually buy presents for my girlfriend and my family… I’ll end up making a lot more of my presents this year, even just like personalised playlists or something.”

Skyla Astrid-Sawyer, 25, works at an independent video game store in Croydon. They said: “While more people had been coming in during the run-up to Christmas, more were coming in just to sell stuff and a lot less to buy stuff.”

Jess Wong, a 33-year-old sales assistant at a homeware and gift shop in Brockley, said: “sales have been relatively okay” but customers now have to “think longer before they buy.” Wong added: “the cost-of-living crisis has definitely affected people’s purchasing power. We’ve put kids’ shoes [sold at a lower price] on display outside the store to help families this Christmas.”

Sam Prisk, 26, from London Fields, said: “People get scared, the biggest one we’ve noticed was when we lost sales for two weeks because everyone was waiting for the Autumn Statement. As soon as that came through the next day, we had massive sales again… Now it’s feeling a bit more Christmassy.” Prisk, a shop manager at Outdoor People in Hackney, added: “We are on a profit increase, up 47% this month. But we don’t take in that much, we take in just enough to survive. Everything costs so much more that when we look at the numbers were actually on a massive loss.”

Matt Estall lives in Brixton but owns and runs Tome Records in Hackney. He said: “It’s hard to say how sales are generally doing, but I have noticed that things are slowly tanking compared to this time last year. Money’s tight myself, so I’m not spending in the same way.”

The 37-year-old added: “Luckily for Tome Records, records are a little bit recession-proof. I think it is like an addiction for a lot of people, and they’re relatively affordable. But ask me again in like 3 months and I might have a different idea!”

Aleksandra Ringo, a 34-year-old photographer from Haggerston, said: “I’m getting a present for my son and my partner but probably that’s it.”

She added that she had “pretty much stopped shopping. It’s kind of financial but also, I’m a bit of a shopaholic, and it’s been taking too much of my head space so I’ve kind of just cut it.”

Laticia-Rae Hycton, 23, co-owner of a deli who lives in Bethnal Green said she is “keeping an eye” on how much she is spending. She added: “The cost-of-living crisis will “100% impact how my family will buy Christmas supplies. Lidl will be used for the alcohol list, you know… Veggies and stuff you can get at Aldi and still get it cheap… If you can find it cheaper somewhere else then we will. But, like nice Christmassy stuff, we’re still gonna try do expensive-ish.”

Veronica Benjamin, 66, retired, said that she was being “more careful” with how she spent her money this Christmas. Despite speaking to ELL on Croydon High Street, she admitted: “I’m doing my shopping online, I used a lot of Black Friday deals, I’m looking for bargains.”