Beirut: Beirut in December was once a shopping extravaganza, where traffic congestion all day clogged with flashing Christmas lights and billboards sized medium to advertise champagne and jewelry.
In almost two years of brutal economic collapse, the lights have come out on the commercial glory of Beirut and lack of power has left the city streets covered in gloom.
This year, roadside billboards tell different stories and are more economical: which reflects the worst financial crisis to hit the Middle East countries that spend freely.
Steel Safes, Banknotes Counter, Discounts for Money Transfer – Diplestal offers on the bridge straddling the main highway to Beirut is not your typical Christmas pleasure.
“Sales of safes and safes have increased by 35 to 50 percent since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019,” sales representatives on SmartSecurity LB, one of the main retailers in Lebanon, told AFP.
Alarms and CCTV systems also sell like hot cakes.
The lack of confidence in the bank which is widely blamed for the worst financial crisis in Lebanese history has increased the estimated amount of cash stored in the Lebanese house of up to $ 10 billion.
“We are in minus 90 percent compared to the Pre-2019 crisis level,” said Antonio Vincenti, Chair of the Pikasso Out-of-Home Advertising Company, a market leader in Lebanon.
Banks, whose campaign was once everywhere on the advertising board, went bankrupt, sometimes replaced by the money transfer company offered to distribute valuable diaspora dollars to the country.
“The digital screen remains turned off, mostly because of the problems we face in electricity supply,” Vincenti said.
The government provides almost two hours a day electricity and the cost of giving power on the screen with a newly subsidized diesel will exceed the income from the client.
In a remote downtown area of ​​Beirut, where luxury brands are concentrated, one sign of Christmas apologies is still flashing at night with words: “Despite everything”.
In Hamra, the main highway in downtown Beirut, there are a few remaining vibrations of Christmas shopping streets and mood echoing the popular hashtag “Santa Bala Shanta” (Santa without sacks).
The municipal budget cannot keep traffic lights turned on, especially miles of string lights used for the road canopy throughout December.
Even WHAM is usually unavoidable seasonal hits “Christmas ago” there is no place to hear, relieve some possible, but the exact sign that something has changed.
In the shop window, Christmas sales posters lost the number by the “closed” signs – and the beggar had replaced the Santa Impersonator on the road outside.
The busiest shops are foreign exchange booths, which now provide free black plastic bags to do prominent lumps from Lebanese pounds that have been depreciated.
Four of the five Lebanon is now considered poor, according to the UN income threshold of $ 2 per day.
In supermarkets in the upper class of capital, the cheapest half of the champagne bottles cost 900,000 Lebanese, substantially more than a minimum monthly wage, now worth less than $ 25 in the black market.
In previous years, the giant pyramid of Panettone and Christmas Hampers overflowed with Foie Gras and Cognac blocked the halls.
“This year there is an offer on detergent! Buy one, get one free,” said Christine Kreidy, laughing, when she pushed her empty trolley past the welcome display and to the shop silent.
“I think it’s the opportunity to focus on the real meaning of Christmas but I have to admit that I used to enjoy Christmas spending,” said the 49-year-old.
“That’s the problem in Lebanon now: Is it Christmas or other days, there is no excitement.”