Perhaps the deepest impression of most people towards the dragon year Spring Festival is the cold temperature and rainy weather. However, for this very reason many citizens changed their original plans of celebration, and spent their long holidays in shopping and having dinner parties. As a result, various department stores have gained their popularity. During this Spring Festival of the dragon year, the department stores such as GrandBuy Department Store (including Xin Da Xin), Friendship Store, Teemall Department Store, Mopark Department Store, Simgo Department Store, Dongshan Department Store, Metono Department Store, China Department Store and so on have reached a business turnover of RMB 539 million yuan, with the year-on-year increase of most department stores between 7%-10%.

The freezing air has dominated the theme of shopping during the golden week of Spring Festival. Down jackets, fur clothing, leather clothing and other winter clothes have become the best-selling items. The special counter for winter clothes at GrandBuy Department Store has done as much business during the golden week as it did for the fortnight before the festival, which has tripled or quadrupled as compared with business during ordinary times. Mopark Department Store has achieved the year-on-year increase of 80% in terms of clothes sales.

In addition, thanks to the freezing air, humidity-eliminators, clothes dryers, and other moisture-preventing items, which normally do not become popular until in February and March, have entered into peak season ahead of time.

Nevertheless, the freezing air has also affected people's desire to go shopping out of their houses and thus triggered the outburst of online consumption. According to incomplete statistics, online purchases of Spring Festival foods, small household appliances, and cosmetics have increased. The sales at igrandbuy website have increased by 20% on year-on-year basis, which far outpaced the sale increase of GrandBuy Department Store. As Mr. Chen, a citizen in Guangzhou, puts it, "Otaku Economy" has balanced the double needs of busy office workers for daily recreation and consumption. "We are too busy and tired at work, so when we are free we would like to stay home. When we want to buy something, we prefer to search for it on the Internet, cards, presents, Spring Festival foods, furniture, or whatever. All these stuffs in my house have been obtained through online shopping. Even a conservative estimate would put the expenditure for the Spring Festival at RMB 4000 to 5000 yuan.