Sales in retail stores related to Christmas recorded a 1.8% decline compared to last year, according to a report prepared by the Argentine Confederation of Media Industry.
“Beyond household budget restrictions that have discouraged retail sales, there were fewer working days to shop this Christmas than last year, a situation that partly explains this result,” CAME said in a statement.
According to the body that brings together the SMEs in the sector, “the vacation on Tuesday the 20th for the Argentine national team title at the World Cup in Qatar and the final on Sunday the 18th have taken away days of consumption”.
This situation, according to the body, was reflected in the number of people who went out to shop at the last minute, based on the movement registered on Saturday 24 December.
Of the 6 major items surveyed, Cosmetics and Perfumery (+2.1%), Audio, video, mobile devices and accessories (+4.2%) and Toy shops (+3.4%) grew and Footwear decreased ( -5.1%), clothing (-14.4%) and bookstores (-7.5%).
This Christmas, 76.8% of companies measured did as well or better than expected, 3.6 percentage points more than last year (73.2%), although it indicated that expectations for this holiday season were moderate.
Due to tighter margins and some uncertainty about the costs of replacing post-party merchandise, there was a shortage of promotions this time around: only half of the companies in the sample carried them out, when in 2021 almost 70% of offered them something.
CAME specified that the average ticket was $9,410, with the highest amount in Audio, Video, Mobile Phones and Accessories ($10,985) and the lowest in Bookstore ($5,222).
Source: Clarin
