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From KQED.

Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.

You know, this year, I can't tell if I've changed or the world has changed, but holiday

shopping feels more fraught than ever before.

There are both an unending and incredible array of online retailers honing in on whatever

your particular weaknesses might be, and also a huge number of local craft fairs, holiday

markets, and other maker stuff, how

you choose to spend your money, where you choose to spend your money, feels ever more

complicated.

Maybe it's the dominance of just a few big retailers like Amazon, or maybe it's just that

for almost everyone there is less money to spread around than in the past as inflation has eaten whatever

meager wage gains people have gotten and tariffs hit a broad array of categories y'all i'm trying to

get in the holiday spirit here i swear but this is what i'm seeing out there so we've got some

guests who can do both i think think. They can think about the broad

economic situation and also help us sort out our own particular little lives. We're starting

first with Amanda Mall, senior reporter covering consumer culture at Bloomberg Businessweek. She

writes the magazine's buying power column. Welcome, Amanda.

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