VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Retailers shouldn’t get too excited about cashing in this Christmas, according to one expert who says this despite Colliers International predicting a nearly five per-cent increase in holiday sales in our province.

Retail expert David Ian Gray says you — the consumer have far more choice in the number of stores out available in our province than you did ten years ago.  But he says that’s bad news for retailers because it will spread out spending.

“If you’re a retailer you’re facing a lot more competition and even though there’s a projection that sales are going to be up a little more this Christmas reality is you’re fighting for that increase with more competition than you have before,” says Gray.

He also says people aren’t actually spending more.

“Every year we gain in population and prices are starting to go up a little bit in retail,” says Gray.

News1130 also spoke with people in Vancouver last week who said they’d be spending the same amount of less than they have previously this holiday season.

Gray says we’re a long way off from seeing the double digit peak numbers we saw in 2007.

“The growth is not going to return anytime soon, our economy is starting to bounce back but it’s very tenuous and in a given month we could fall back again,” says Gray.