I was off the sauce because I was working on News 24 the next morning. It's a feeling that must be familiar to regular "designated drivers", who stay temperate while their mates are as drunk as skunks.

Everyone else gets drunker, the dancing deteriorates, conversations start to slur, and you catch yourself thinking, "am I this awful when I'm plastered?" (To which you answer, ruefully, "of course I am").

Deep price cuts during the sale suggest..a lot of stock that didn't sell at full price before Christmas

But the self-imposed prohibition means I can still remember what people were talking about (while they were still talking sense). And there was a conversation in the kitchen that should cause a few shivers among the High Street's big names.

Next in line?

Two of the women were swapping notes with me about the January sales. One said she thought the bargains at Next were particularly good this year. To which the other replied, "Oh Next, I never shop there, it gets more like Marks and Spencer - so old-ladyish".

There are three things in that sentence that won't please the boss of Next (who, as he's only 30-odd himself, is barely a decade older than the two women who were talking to me).

The first is the good bargains. Deep price cuts during the sale suggests there's a lot of stock that needs shifting - in other words, a lot of stock that didn't sell at full price before Christmas. Every pound off the price in the sales is a pound off the profits at results time.

The second is that his shops are seen as old fashioned by two women in their early 20s. Not only does that stop them shopping there today, it means they may not shop there when they're older - because they'll fear they'll be branded old fashioned themselves.

But the thing that should drive him up the wall is the suggestion that his chain is just like Marks & Spencer.

Older viewers may think young people's fashion all looks the same, but if my kid sisters are anything to go by, young shoppers have a strict sense of demarcation - some stores are good for tops, others do skirts, and for handbags and glitter you go further down the street.

Next spent much of the late 1990s taking business off M&S, and luring away its more fashion-conscious shoppers. Lumping the two together either means Next has lost the fashion edge it had - or Marks & Spencer has raised its game. (M&S chiefs shouldn't get too smug - they were branded "old-ladyish" too.)

City rumours

So - is Next in trouble? I'm not asking because of some tipsy fashion tips on New Year's Eve. I'm asking because the gossips in the City's wine bars say it might be.

There have been City rumours before about Next - and they've been wrong. The tongues were wagging last summer - but then in September, Next said the amount of money it makes had jumped by 24% over the previous 12 months. That shut the critics up good and proper.

But its sales aren't keeping up. Next was selling 7 per cent more than the previous year during the early summer of 2002. By the autumn, that growth had slowed down to just 3 per cent.

And there has been a sharp fall in the share price over the last month. A number of brokers have told me their big clients have been dumping the stock on the quiet - because of fears that the growth in sales may have slipped further.

Despair on the High Street

Most of the big clothes sellers on the High Street struggled during the Autumn and Winter. First the weather was too hot - that stopped us buying warm clothes. Then it was too wet - that stopped us shopping altogether.

And at Christmas, we saw a game of chicken played out in the stores. Shoppers put off their holiday buying as long as they could - in the hope that some shopkeepers would slash their prices early. And some retailers did crack - starting their cut-price sales as much as a fortnight before Christmas Day.

It has all left the high street in a state of despair. The shopkeepers' trade body - the British Retail Consortium - has already said the holiday shopping season got off to a very sluggish start this year.

Many retailers appeared on Breakfast in December, and told us their blushes would only be saved by a last minute shopping rush.

And this week, we got new information from the bosses' organisation, the CBI. It said the high street was headed for its worst Christmas in a decade.

You'll have heard a lot of talk before and after Christmas about record numbers of shoppers flocking to the stores. That's true. But it's largely irrelevant.

A store can have all the shoppers it likes, but if they're not buying anything, it's of no use.

And while shops can slash their prices to boost business, they'll pay for it in lower profits later on. It will be weeks before we find out if Scrooge really did steal Christmas on the High Street. But you should have a good idea already. Just think about the presents you bought, and the gifts you received.

If you cut back, or got a cut-price, then put your money on Scrooge.