The Argentine Chamber of Medium Enterprises (CAME) prepared a report that set off all the alarms in the retail commerce by revealing that January sales in this segment suffered a 3.4% drop compared to the previous month, and compared to January 2022, it shows a decrease of 0.3%.
In a statement, the CAME explained that “the recovery of consumption retail registered in December, which had cut a negative trend in the last half of 2022, failed to maintain itself. In the first month of 2023, consumers turned their expenses to services, such as tourism, recreation or gastronomy, relegating purchases of “usual seasonal” goodssuch as clothing or footwear ”, details the report.
When observing in detail the study in shops retailersit appears that “of the 7 sectors measured in January, 3 showed decline in the year-on-year comparison”, while the remaining 4 increased”. The pharmacy item showed a real annual increase of 10.7%, perfumery grew 5.3%, and food and beverages, with an improvement of 3.6%, achieved the best returns, reveals the report.
And at the other end, the strongest falls were suffered by textiles and clothing, with a decrease of 14.4%, and footwear and leather goods, which showed a decrease of 2.5%. The merchants Retailers in the hardware, electrical and construction materials category noted a 2.9% drop in sales compared to December, explained by the fact that families postpone home repairs until after the holidays.
One fact that caught the attention of retailers is that the majority of shoppers “He ended the year with heavily charged credit cards”which limited the purchasing power to transactions of very low amounts, maintains the study, which was carried out surveying 1,051 retail businesses throughout the country, between February 1 and 3, 2023.
