Europe has innovative 'credit-crunch offers'

Berlin: Lukas Schmidt was staring at the alluring photos of white sandy beaches and palm trees on display in the shop window of a Berlin travel agents but sighed and turned away.

"I actually wanted to take my girlfriend to Spain in December, but I think we'll probably end up staying here," said the 27-year-old mechanic.

"I don't think prices have gone up, but with this credit crisis all over the media, it does make you wonder what's going to happen next," he said.

Like Schmidt, many Europeans say they are cutting down on non-essential spending on things like holidays, furniture, clothes and organic food, and trying to save by shopping at DIY and discount stores in the face of the financial turmoil.

But on the other hand, the crisis is creating novel business openings including "credit crunch" chocolate bars and "meltdown parties". And Spanish authorities are finding they can make ends meet by getting tougher on traffic offences.

"There are certain things which I have cut down on -- bottled water for example," said German student Sarah Klaus. "It's scary to think that this credit crisis stuff is now actually influencing the way I live. Occasionally, I used to shop in organic shops, but now I just think of it as a waste of money."

In Spain, the media reported that many young people were moving back to their parents' homes for financial reasons.

"I had to leave my flat, just when I'd got everything, now here I am with my parents again," Marc Solsona, a 35-year-old who had just managed to buy a flat near Barcelona when he lost his job as a real estate agent, told El Pais daily.

Some 60 per cent of Germans believe the economic outlook will worsen, a recent opinion survey by pollster Forsa said. In France, a BVA poll showed 64 per cent of voters had become more pessimistic over their financial situation in recent weeks.

Businesses ranging from luxury retailers to department stores, hotels and charities have started to feel the effect.

Charity at home

In Italy, AIBA, a charity for abandoned children, said worry about the banking system had led to a 20 per cent drop in donations for children in orphanages.

Karsten Schulz, director of German online luxury auction house Exklusivwaren, said rich people had already started to cut back on spending before the current crisis hit.

"It's clear that luxury products don't sell as well as they used to," he said.

In Britain, retailer John Lewis reported an 8.3 per cent drop in weekly sales on October 3.

But while many shops and consumers are suffering, others are putting on a brave face, even offering special meltdown deals.

London's Selfridges department store has put "credit crunch" chocolates on sale, while party outfitter, PlumParty, offers doomsday-chic decorations online, including "Going through hell" paperweights and "make money" colouring books.

"When life gives you a stack of worthless stock certificates, make party hats," the firm says. "For 25 per cent off these items, use the coupon code MELTDOWN upon checkout."

Several British restaurants offer "credit crunch lunches" at special discounts. And money-conscious diners near the English town of Norfolk can barter home-grown produce for a drink at a pub.

"Last week, someone brought in a pumpkin, which we used for our pumpkin and ginger soup," Rachel Callister, assistant manager at the rural pub, The Pigs, in Edgefield, told Reuters.

"They came in for a meal. They'd grown a few pumpkins, and they got some money knocked off their meal," she said, adding game, apples, and lavender were among other items the pub had accepted as part-payment.

But Europeans also seem to be eating out less.

Around three in four working people in Britain take lunch to work at least once a week, a recent BBC Good Food survey showed. One third said they did this more often now than six months ago, with most naming the economic climate as the reason.

Europeans' concerns about banks and personal finances could also benefit firms selling security devices and no-frills goods.

Specialist companies in Paris have recorded booming sales of safes. Solon, which has been in the safe-making trade since 1920, said it had seen a more than 30 per cent rise over recent weeks since the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers.

Road fines

Environmentalists hope money-conscious Europeans will also swap their high-cost cars for bicycles to save money.

With petrol more expensive, the sale of bicycle parts in Germany rose by some 20 per cent earlier this year, said Karsten Klama from the ADFC cycling association.

"People got their old bikes out of the cellar and had them fixed," he said.

Spain's traffic police are fighting back by issuing more fines. Faced with falling revenues from vehicle-licensing fees as new car sales plummet, the service's head, Pere Navarro, told Congress he expected fines to rise 15 per cent this year due to increased use of speed radars and better processing of offences.