Consumption and inflation: short-term purchases and the feeling that “next year we will be worse”

As polls usually reflect, the personal economic situation of the population travels along a different path from that of the situation. Society today is “alienated”describes the consumer analyst Guillermo Oliveto. “Alienated as a synonym for you want to escape from reality”, Given that 70% of people believe it In a year, things will get worse.

That feeling, however, contrasts with his behavior among the gondolas: “society knows it’s awful outside. So, in the meantime, try to get back to normal and consume “describes the analyst.

This concept was part of the first exhibition heard at 20th Retail Day, a mass consumption event that brought together large supermarket chains and industry on Tuesday.

In this scenario Oliveto has developed the characteristics of a atypical consumption that all companies experience today: “What we went through was so difficult that now I want to live “, is the collective thought of today’s consumer, interpreted.

Thus, extolling the references of the trade and supplier companies who listened to him carefully, the analyst insisted: “There is a market, there are pesos on the street and there are people who want to consume, who wants to maintain an intimate and daily well-being ”, he reviewed.

To support the analyst the short-term statistics: sales in shopping centers increased by 41% compared to 2021; appliances, 15%, consumption in hotels and restaurants, 21%, and motorcycle sales, 45%, according to data from consulting firm W based on INDEC, GFK, CAME and ACARA.

The reverse is the inability to access the goods in the “long term”such as real estate, 0 km cars or trips abroad.

This is how consumption behaved in the first half of the year, according to the analyst. And he put a question mark on the direction that sales can take in the second half of 2022, in case wages fail to keep pace with inflation, which is expected to rise by 80% by December. Among other reasons, due to the imminent release of tariffs.

Increase consumption

Regarding mass consumption, despite the high inflationary impact, sales in self-service shops, supermarkets and local businesses recorded an average increase of 4.4% in the first half, mainly driven by the interior of the country, according to the consulting firm Scentia. The number is compared to a base from the same period of the previous year a drop of 7.4%.

Osvaldo del Rio, president of the consulting firm, the sales trend in supermarkets was anticipated in July: they recorded an increase of 7.7%, according to this monitoring. The collection of the Christmas bonus has certainly influenced this channel. But, in addition, these mouths concentrate a group of customers capable of doing so sock against the weather of inflation.

In the retail trade, however, the situation is more hostile: according to the latest data from the Argentine Confederation of Medium-sized Enterprises (CAME), sales fell by 3.5% on average last month, year after year. And the most alarming drop was the drop in food and drink sales, which fell by 6.2%, according to traders, due to “the constant increase in prices”.

According to analyst Damián Di Pace, director of the consulting firm Focus Market. also exhibitor at the mass consumption event, “Inflation in July (which INDEC will inform this Thursday) had the highest increase of the year”, And estimated it at 6.9%. Although he clarified that “the basic basket of food and drink has registered increases above the average, which has gone over 8%.

NEITHER