(17 Dec 2008) SHOTLIST
Naples
1. Wide of shopping street
2. Mid of crowd walking
3. Close up of "Merry Christmas" written on store window
4. Wide of clothing store
5. Exterior of chocolate store
6. Close up of chocolates
7. Mid of woman putting chocolates in bag
8. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Adriano Raniello, gay-odin chocolate store:
"They won't be buying like they used to, they won't buy like they used to because you hear everyone say it. We hope that everything will go OK."
9. Wide of street
10. Close up of sign in store, reading (Italian) "5 euros for slippers and a gift bag, did you understand?"
11. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Biagio, shopper:
"It means that the people who used to buy double will now buy half as much."
12. Mid of people walking past with Father Christmas toy in background
13. Close up of moving doll of Father Christmas
14. Wide of people passing store
15. Window of Leonetti toy store
16. People walking around in toy store
17. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Maurizio Leonetti, shop owner:
"I think people are crying "wolf, wolf" a little too soon. Definitely there is a contraction in consumption, but it is mostly due to the consumer's fear that is continuously aggravated by television and newspapers talking about "crisis, crisis", that unleashes a mechanism of being afraid to spend, which in my opinion does not have a foundation in reality."
18. Close up of reindeer dolls singing
Rome
19. Wide of street in Rome with Confesercenti office in background
20. Close up of sign, reading "Confesercenti"
21. Mauro Bussone, vice director of confesercenti consumer group, entering office
22. SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Mauro Bussoni, Vice director of Confesercenti consumer group:
"The consequences of the crisis in Italy are the same consequences that accompany the crisis in other countries. The international financial situation has caused thousands of Italian investors to lose money, lose their own savings, so there is a condition of an objective nature, that so many people have lost the capability to spend and there is a subjective condition linked to the general situation. It is not clear now how it is going to end up and it does not allow the consumer to have a reference point for the future."
Naples
23. Medium woman looking in mirror in store window
24. Wide shopping street
25. Wide of "Via San Gregorio Armeno", street of the nativity scene makers
26. Mid of shoppers in store
27. Close up of climbing doll of Father Christmas
STORYLINE:
With just one shopping week left until Christmas, Italian retailers say sales remain down despite deep discounts on toys, clothes and other gifts.
In Naples shoppers walk past elegantly decorated store windows but according to the shop keepers at least, they are buying less than last year.
"They won't be buying like they used to, they won't buy like they used to because you hear everyone say it," one chocolate seller, Adriano Raniello, said.
Some shoppers told AP television they were trying to spend their money on useful rather than frivolous items with cell phones being preferable to the latest consumer fashions.
At least one shop owner, however was less convinced.
The owner of Leonetti Toy Store said that media coverage of the economic downturn had led people to cry "wolf" a little too soon.
According to the Italian consumers group Confesercenti 14 (m) million Italian families were affected by the credit crunch.
But Mauro Bussoni, the Vice Director of Confesercenti, said it is still too early to tell.
He said that for 50-percent of the people they interviewed said nothing would change for them during this Christmas.
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