A report prepared by the Argentine Confederation of Medium Industry (CAME) revealed that sales in retail stores related to the Christmas party registered a drop of 1.8% compared to last year. The average ticket was located at 9,410 pesos.
Through a statement, the SME entity indicated that “Beyond the restrictions on the family budget that have been discouraging retail sales, this Christmas there were fewer business days to make purchases compared to last year, a situation that partly explains this result”.
CAME argued that many people went out to buy gifts at the last minute due to the celebrations for the World Cup. “The holiday on Tuesday the 20th for the title of the Argentine National Team in the World Cup in Qatar and the final on Sunday the 18th, took away days of consumption,” he argued.
This situation, according to the entity, was reflected in the number of people who went out to make purchases at the last minute, based on the movement registered on Saturday, December 24. The average ticket, according to the survey, was $9,410, with the highest amount in Audio, video, cell phones and accessories ($10,985) and the lowest in Bookstores ($5,222).
Of the six major items surveyed, Cosmetics and Perfumery (+2.1%), Audio, video, cell phone equipment and accessories (+4.2%) and Toy stores (+3.4%) grew and Footwear fell (-5 .1%), clothing (-14.4%) and bookstores (-7.5%).
In this Christmas, 76.8% of the businesses measured did the same or better than expected, 3.6 percentage points above last year (73.2%), although he stressed that expectations for these holidays were moderate.
Due to the tighter margins and some uncertainty about the replacement costs of post-party merchandise, this time there was a shortage of promotions: only half of the businesses in the sample carried out any, when in 2021 almost 70% of these offered something.
