Happy Holidays Bermuda! Last week I hit hard on the Christmas tree merchants and perhaps I was a little to harsh on them. I did a little more research and determined that Christmas tree prices are not that much higher than last year. But guess what? They're still a little bit higher. This brings me back to my point from last week and in prior submissions, wherein I asked the question, which I now propose again: “How do businesses expect that people who are making less money than they did a year ago, can pay more for the things they bought last year?”Help me understand this thinking. More on this after the top 20.Holding onto the spot at the top of the pops is a hot current dance hit, Moves like Jagger, by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera. This is a catchy, fun, easy to sing along party song, with a kicking beat that gets the punters dancing. Maroon 5 have really done well to drop this monster hit. The collaboration with Christina Aguilera was a stroke of genius as her voice and personality just fit right with the track. Definitely a banger.Up to #2 is another former essential new tune, Mr Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan. Alexandra Stan is one of the hottest and sexiest female artists in the business. Watch out for this Romanian bombshell.Tumbling to #3 is She Will by Lil Wayne featuring Drake. Up to #4 is Sexy And I Know It by LMFAO. I'm left wondering where these guys came from when I listen to their songs. They keep it simple and are just some dudes having fun with life and partying. Oh to be young again, sans responsibilities. Those were the good old days.Falling to #5 is Party by Beyonce featuring Andre 3000. Slipping to #6 is Put Your Hands Up (If You …) by Kylie Minogue.Steadily improving to #7 is Love On Top by Beyonce. This song is tearing up charts all over the world. I'm still stunned that she was able to take the pitch up four times in a track and her voice is already a soprano. Impressive vocal performance, but the simple, old school real instrument and real music feel make this track a breath of fresh air.Slipping to #8 is Rolling In The Deep by Adele. Down to #9 is Chris Brown's hit entitled She Ain't You.Improving to #10 is We Found Love by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris. Rihanna continues to impress. Her repertoire of hits is practically unparalleled over the past few years. You drive along Front Street after 11pm and you will hear this one extensively in all the bars and nightclubs. This situation is played out in bars and nightclubs all over the world.Up to #11 is Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People. On the way up at #12 is Countdown by Beyonce. Tumbling to #13 is I'm Into You by Jennifer Lopez featuring L'il Wayne. Falling to #14 is Fly Away by Mavado. Fading at #15 is Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock.Improving to #16 is Without You by David Guetta featuring Usher. This one also gets a lot of airplay on international radios and in nightspots. Motivation, by Kelly Rowland featuring L'il Wayne, falls to #17 this week. Mavado's Pepper drops to #18.Down to #19 after a long run at the top is Give Me Everything by Pitbull, Neo, AfroJack & Nayer. Tumbling to #20 is Enrique Iglesias' current hit Tonight I'm Loving You.Now back to this week's topic, understanding the psyche of local merchants part 2. So we have a scenario whereby a significant proportion of the population is today taking home less money than they did a year ago.So why and how on Earth do merchants think that people will accept higher prices for goods and services? Or how do they think that people can even afford higher prices? I'm thinking about the average construction worker who is now unemployed. How can he be expected to pay more for things when he is not even working?Given the fact that he is unemployed, he can't even afford last year's prices; so how can he afford higher prices today? Maybe I'm stupid but I just cannot see the logic in this.It's like the cost of even groceries keeps going up and the cost of many essential items keeps going up, but people's wages are being frozen, or they are working fewer hours, and thus making less money. So how can these people afford to pay more for basic essentials when they have less disposable income? Someone needs to look at this more closely.The majority of the persons struggling in this economy at the moment are in the middle and working classes. Most financially independent people shop at Miles, so it seems. So perhaps Miles can probably get away with retaining their prices at previous levels and even increasing them but I would not be surprised if even they had noticed a dip in sales or a change in buyer behaviour. Sensible people switch up their spending habits in a crunch. Even wealthy folks are intelligent shoppers; that's one of the reasons that they are wealthy folks.The other supermarkets, which tend to service the middle and working classes more, whilst still busy because people still need to eat, are probably also noticing a shift from buying more to buying less and/or from buying high-end items to buying lower quality items.For instance, people are probably buying less steak and prime rib and spare ribs and lamb, but more chicken. I remember when corned beef was a staple in the house, which produced a most delicious meal when coupled with white rice and baked beans. Boy I'm getting hungry now just thinking of those amazing meals which our mom produced. Thanks again mom and dad for a really cool upbringing for my brother and me.In any event, the moral of this story is that although we are mired in the worst and longest recession in modern times we simply cannot punish persons who are unemployed, underemployed, working for less than their worth, laid off, not making it, can't find a job, can't keep a job! These folks have to eat as well and we cannot just forget about them.In addition to needing to find work, they still need to eat and to be able to put food on their tables. So let's help them out wherever we can.So I beg all of us to bear in mind, when we are pricing our goods and services, that greater than ever numbers of our population are unemployed, underemployed, struggling, just trying to survive and for us to arbitrarily raise prices is most inconsiderate, selfish and not likely to build loyalty.And as we are now into the Christmas season, let us all reach into our pockets and share the blessings that God has bestowed upon us; help out someone who is less fortunate than us and our families. There is always someone else out there worse off than you. Peace … … DJLT