Empty shelves and aisles once home to hundreds of Christmas decorations are a common sight across many stores in Liverpool at the moment.
We visited a number of budget retailers during the last week to stock up on our own Christmas decorations and found multiple Home Bargains stores with barely anything left and B&M stores with hardly any remaining either.
This is no doubt due to many people deciding to shop earlier then ever this year for Christmas in a bid to cheer themselves up after an unprecedented year.
The coronavirus pandemic has left thousands separated from their families for months.
On Twitter, other shoppers have noticed Christmas decorations disappearing from shelves.
User @the_taylorjay said: "Is it just me or are Christmas decorations basically already sold out like.. everywhere? Lol."
@neddiened_ said: "Christmas decorations are literally sold out everywhere I go. Anyone know where I could find some stuff? At this point I'm decorating my tree whatever colour I find."
@GinaMarie_F said: "Stores are already sold out of Christmas decorations...on December 3rd....Note to self: buy Christmas decorations in July. #itsbeginningtolookalotlikechristmas"
We also visited Home Bargains store at North Liverpool Shopping Park on Portal Way, where gold coloured decorations seem to be in high demand. Whilst there were some left, there was not a massive selection and it was obvious to see where the stock had once been.
We found a similar situation at Home Bargains' Great Homer Street, Paisley Street and Maghull stores.
The ECHO has contacted Home Bargains for a comment.
At B&M Switch Island and Great Homer Street stores it was a similar situation too, with no multipack baubles left. And almost all of its personalised stockings and sacks sold out completely.
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A B&M spokesperson said: "We launched our Christmas stock a little early this year, with festive products hitting the shelves in September and since then it’s been selling particularly well, especially as everyone seems to be very well prepared and getting in the festive spirit earlier than usual due to the year that we've had.”
Does anywhere have decorations left?
Our most successful trip was to The Range where although it was clear stock was running low, there were still plenty of options available.
We found black and gold baubles and decorations available and plenty of Christmas lights too. Its Aintree store was running low on wreaths at the time of our visit.
For those who want to shop local this Christmas, we also managed to order plenty of decorations from Waterloo's Tony Almond store. You can visit its store, but we ordered online and the items arrived within a couple of days and seem really good quality too.
If you got any tips or store recommendations for readers still looking for decorations, let us know in the comments below.
