The busker at the entrance to the Canberra Centre won't say how much she makes in a day, just, "Canberrans are generous".
Her open violin case had a goodly number of $2 pieces and the occasional $5 note.
But it wasn't a fortune as Charlotte Van Tongern played If I were a Rich Man.
If she were a rich woman she wouldn't have to play to finance her studies at the Australian National University.
All the indications are that she will struggle a bit harder this Christmas to pay the ANU bills.
Measures of consumer sentiment indicate that it's fallen. And a string of business voices say trade is slower than they expected.
The chairman of the Canberra Business Chamber, Archie Tsirimokos, said, "There seems to be uncertainty about the economy, generally. People are holding on to their cash."
The head of the Australian Retailers Association,Russell Zimmerman, blamed the smoke and fires, "People have got other things on their minds than Christmas shopping."
And several Canberra shopkeepers said trade was slower than usual.
The Australian Retailers Federation had forecast spending in the ACT of $984 million in the six weeks to Christmas, a rise of 2.6 per cent on the same period last year, but now Mr Zimmerman isn't confident.
"Our concern is that a lot of people have been affected by drought. The smoke has forced some people not to go to the shops."
And the Business Chamber's Mr Tsirimokos said there was a raft of factors clouding concerns for 2020:
- shortage of staff to fill jobs in the ACT
- public service jobs were being cut or moved
- an ACT election, with uncertainty about policy towards development applications
- the next stage of the tram system was yet to be determined
Apart from the big picture, different types of shop have been faring better or worse.
Landspeed Records on Garema Place was full at lunchtime on Monday, with a queue to the till, but it's fighting hard in an industry thwacked by new technology.
Owner Blake Budak said that music on the web was denting CD sales (though vinyl was going well) - the upside was that people heard new music online and then came in to buy a hard copy.
And social media had improved the way an independent record store like his could market itself.
But Mr Budak reckoned the real, immediate problem was the weather.
"This Christmas has been a bit of a funny one," he said, "because of the smoke and heat, so it's felt not as busy as in the past."
The internet is hitting bricks and mortar shops.
Jolt Games in Mitchell specialises in board games, not chess but newer multi-player ones like "Catan", "Pandemic" and "Concept".
Owner Luis Lopez said, "I think retail in general is struggling."
The biggest problem was cheap, inferior counterfeits, riddled with spelling mistakes - games normally retailing for $60 but online or in dollar stores for $15.
