Well, yesterday was 11:11 (11th of November) otherwise the "singles day" which originated in China by some university students in reply to February 14th. People are supposed to treat themselves that day. But hey, as I previously mentioned here several times, we have the art of importing outside traditions without the accompanying rationale (see here for a good example, and here is another). So "singles day" became just another excuse for dropping limited sales, flash sales, sales for one day etc.... Of course, the market is doing incredibly bad. A local brand I know has gone on the sale for the first time since 2013 (its inception). Others are doing the same - under different guises ("black" so and so - here is a good example from this year).
The market did show slight signs of recovering (I insist, slight) but there we hopes here and there. And now, what's what is happening in Palestine/Israel and even in the south of Lebanon where the situation is volatile and unpredictable, everyone is going to panic mode somehow, suddenly the population has gone back to basic consumption (food, medicine, basic necessities etc...). So far the weather is clement, which means that heating bills still did not factor majorly in expenses, but should cold really start creeping in officially, this will only add to the expenses of people and families.