If you haven’t got something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

I was stunned to witness a customer at Kenilworth Country Bakery tell a middle-aged, quietly-spoken staff member she was a “F… expletive”.

The gourmet bakery had run out of lemon meringue flavoured donuts. I mean, I get the heartache of not being able to fulfil your sugar cravings, but at what point is that the poor staff member’s fault?

Customer rage is increasing across the Coast. A lady I have known for many years tells me she is abused every few days at the homewares shop she works at in Kawana. Customers go into a fit of rage if the stock they want is simply not available.

Come on, people. A lack of pillow cases is not worth screaming abuse at this poor grandmother.

We need to do better with Christmas, and all the shopping it brings, less than 50 days away. We are all going to need to take a chill pill.

Have you noticed parcels are taking a little longer to arrive than usual? Discounts at furniture stores are a rarity. God forbid, even rug stores have stopped closing down. Cars are in short supply due to a worldwide shortage of computer chips. Gone are the days of picking from six colours of the same car in stock.

Consumers are getting FOMO and they are not used to it. So, they are getting cranky when they don’t get what they want.  But why now?  What is causing this craziness? Aren’t we supposed to be financially sensible in these strange times?

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In Googling for answers as to why my new deck chairs will be arriving in March 2022, it hit me: demand versus supply. All around the world, factories have been locked down for probably half of the last 18 months, and all these links in the supply chain are affected.

Demand for the stuff in Queensland is going through the roof, but the stuff simply isn’t produced yet. There are factories catching up their production, with warehouses full of goods ready to go, but there’s a worldwide shortage of wooden pallets and shipping containers.

It’s likely I will get my deck chairs just in time for winter, but it won’t be the retailer’s fault.

Let’s take a big breath and count to three. If you want to be clever and avoid missing out, buy your Christmas goodies now.

And if you have read all of this and still haven’t got anything nice to say to our hard workers at this time of year, then you should put your hand in the air to speak and then put it across your face.