Inflation dampens otherwise bright small biz holiday season

Customers shop at a Five Little Monkeys store in Berkeley, Calif., Monday, Dec. 12, 2022. Small retailers say this year looks much different than the last "normal" pre-pandemic holiday shopping season of 2019. They're facing decades-high inflation forcing them to raise prices and making shoppers rein in the freewheeling spending seen in 2021 when they were flush with pandemic aid and eager to spend. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The free-wheeling holiday shopper of 2021, happy to spend money to relieve some pent-up pandemic demand, has given way to a more practical consumer this year, many small business owners say.

The reason: inflation.

Stephanie Sala felt last year had a YOLO, or “you only live once,” feel to it. People were splurging — spending $250 on a giant stuffed avocado, for example — at her eight Five Little Monkeys toy stores around the Bay Area in California. This year, the purchases are more low-key: Legos, Pokemon and anything mushroom-related are popular toys.