Two things often associated with the holiday season are gifts and food. As a result, retailers have to prepare for what is typically the busiest time of year.

In particular, the holidays affect what kinds of merchandise is stocked and how much. “Our merchandise ordering goes in cycles, but Christmas is the largest amount of giftware and tableware we have in stock over the year,” says Miranda Ringma, co-owner of Zocalo. “Zocalo receives a lot of new stock from September 15 to November 30 to prepare for Christmas: gifts, plants, trees, tableware, flowers, and treats. You will notice a lot of trucks and merchandise coming in the back door over this time.”

“People eat more at Christmas! Celebrations in life are complete when good food is combined with warm company!” says Teresa Spinelli, owner of The Italian Centre Shop.

“There are many, many food products that are from Italy, Poland, Russia, and other countries that are specialty Christmas products and people want to have these items in their homes at Christmas because it reminds them of happy times in their home country,” explains Spinelli.

“Polish people love certain types of chocolates that remind them of Christmases when their mother or grandmother would bring those home. Hungarians have a particular candy that they always eat at Christmas time. For Italians, traditionally when we do Christmas visits we always bring the family a Pantone. It is a dry cake made with cream or fruit. They are packaged in beautiful boxes. Another Italian Christmas product is Torrone which is nouget. Dried figs and dates are always a treat too. I could go on and on!”

To help handle the holiday madness, Zocalo hires a couple of extra staff members and everyone works more hours. At The Italian Centre, more staff is not hired, but the part-timers work longer.

And just how crazy does it get? “Pretty crazy!” says Spinelli. “Everyone wants to get the freshest products possible, so the days before Christmas are really FUN! There are lots of customers in the store, and lots of excitement in preparations for Christmas. I love the energy during the festive season.”

Ringma also finds the holidays a mix of hard work and fun. “Despite having practiced the Christmas rush for eight years, each of the busy seasons are still quite a load of work at Zocalo,” she says. “As a small independent business, we rely on this season to stay in business, so we make every effort to put our best foot forward. This means our team is exceptionally busy being little Christmas elves as they put together gifts for customers. The pace is quick and a little crazy, but also a lot of fun.”