It's that time of year again - when people push aside the remnants of the selection box and walk off the Christmas Day excesses by barrelling around the St Stephen's Day sales.

Overall Irish retailers are reporting sales are up to 2% higher than last year, but many are still hoping for a surge in business this weekend.

Sustainability is certainly a buzzword now! And more and more online personalities, brands and shops are labelling themselves ‘Green’.

Was it the nightmare before Christmas?

I wonder if children had a choice, would they prefer if we got our act together to tackle climate change or bought them an array of presents from a bumper toy store, asks Joyce Fegan

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys is to bring in new rules around the sale and use of gift vouchers to improve consumer rights in the area.

Polls will stay open until 10pm this evening in the votes to replace the four TDs elected to the European Parliament in May.

Employers are advised to watch out for workers shopping online during working hours this Black Friday.

Sales in bars fell both in terms of volume and the money taken in by the businesses in August, September, and October from the same period last year, CSO retail figures show.

Around three quarters of all card fraud happens online.

“In the region of 75% of all card fraud occurs online, so serious caution is required when purchasing goods or services,” she said.

The shopping day known as Black Friday will attract more than one third of Irish consumers, with around a quarter of them using the occasion to buy up to half of their Christmas gifts.

It is not necessary to be a curmudgeon — but it helps — to recognise that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are contrived marketing swizzes with a single objective — to shift product in time to get it under the Christmas tree.

A dystopian novel published earlier this year, The Warehouse, based on the workings of Amazon, makes repeated reference to something called the Black Friday Massacres. How these fictional massacres have impacted on fictional consumers, making them entirely dependent on online shopping because going to the actual shops is too dangerous.

British online fashion retailer Asos said problems with warehouses in the US and Germany, which were behind a 68% slump in annual profit, were largely behind it, sending its shares sharply higher.

The pressure on Britain’s store owners has been highlighted starkly in new figures showing almost one fifth of all shopping last month was done online.

However, the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland did not uphold a complaint that a train station poster for Motivation Weight Management amounted to bullying.

“It’s not a party as such, more of a kitten-cuddling day really”

A review of Cork city centre’s retail strategy has been announced as the surge in online shopping threatens Ireland’s high streets.

There’s plenty of evidence that London housing is in a rut, but the market is now facing a number of additional headwinds, including the prospect of higher taxes and a warning from the Bank of England that UK house values could fall as much as 30% in the event of a disorderly exit from the EU.

We’re living in a time of ‘savage capitalism’ and not only can the small retailers, with their rates and rents not keep up, but neither can we, the boys and girls, insects and animals, men and women, who must inhabit this earth for as long as she will have us, writes Joyce Fegan

Shop local, folks!

After searching the internet and shops for the best tech deals, here are some of the gems I’ve found for Black Friday and beyond.

The Black Friday and the Cyber Monday online spending splurge is bad for retailers and possibly poor value for shoppers too, Moody’s Investors Service has warned.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

It’s that time of year again when consumers all over the world descend into a shopping frenzy.

Here's your morning bulletin.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be a “double-edged sword” for Irish retailers with margin pressures incurred from major discounting offsetting the spike in business, a retail expert has said.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Nuclear waste we can handle — just don’t waste our time, too.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Here's your morning bulletin.

The company which runs four of Cork's largest multi-storey car parks - Q-Park - has launched a loyalty app offering cashback and rewards to encourage shoppers into the city.

Here are all the latest headlines this morning...

I don't want scare anyone, and I apologise in advance for bringing up the C-word, but it is now just over 100 days until Christmas. I am not one of those lunatics who put the decorations up before

Carol O’Callaghan takes a trip around the shops to see what discounts are on offer to finish off a home interior project.

Demand for the new iPhone helped boost electrical goods retailer Dixons-Carphone’s sales in Ireland by 12% over the Christmas trading period.

Retail giant Marks & Spencer has revealed "mixed" festive trading in the UK after another steep fall in sales in its embattled clothing arm and disappointing trading in its food halls.

Bargain hunters — assemble! The great sales rush began in earnest yesterday as many households shook off the Christmas Day fun with a bout of retail therapy.

Retailers have reported a small increase in trading this Christmas as far more people shop online.

An online shopping delivery service has had to bring in buses to deal with the “large increase” in people buying on the web.

Electrical goods group Dixons-Carphone is still looking for a buyer for its iD Mobile arm in Ireland after seeing core group sales and profits slump in the first half of its financial year.

HOW do we keep the magic of Christmas alive at a time in history when we are all being mercilessly manipulated by commercial interests. 

Irish consumers will spend more this Christmas, but a push is on to ensure that overseas online retailers are not the only businesses to benefit.