Christmas shopping

This was a big 6.9% jump over the same month in the previous year, and more than twice the year-over-year gain of 3.3% in the previous December. [...] At the other end of the spectrum, residents of Saskatchewan, Quebec and Prince Edward Island spent the least per capita in retail stores last December. [...] This was 49% higher than the business-as-usual average of $543 a month during the rest of the year, the widest gap in the country. [...] A big reason for the gap in Ontario between December retail sales and those in the rest of the year could be attributed to consumers’ larger share of spending in general merchandise stores, clothing stores and miscellaneous retailers. [...] It was the opposite case in Saskatchewan, where per capita spending in December amounted to just $699, the lowest in the country.