the world cup boosted the sale of 43, 50 and 55-inch televisions / sebastián casali
In the shops of the City, the World Cup and the successful performance of the National Team, generated a win in the area of television sales. As a counterpart, also as a result of the fervor for international competition, turnover in the clothing industry fell, while a delay of several days in the start of Christmas shopping was noticed as a phenomenon in consumer behavior.
“50 percent of the total sales from the end of November until now were televisions,” summarized Juan José Bogani, manager of an electrical appliance store on 7th Avenue between 57 and 58.
In that place, as in several others consulted by this newspaper, the customers who took screens were pushed to buy to continue with good images as the instances were surpassing the albiceleste team until reaching the final and obtaining the World Cup.
In general, during the World Cup fever, 43, 50 and 55-inch televisions were shipped.
According to Bogani’s assessment of those days, when most of the interest in consumption turned to televisions, “sales were very high prior to the World Cup, to the point that there was even a lack of stock, and after That rage was diminishing and there was no significant increase in sales.
Enthusiasm for televisions began at a massive level, strictly speaking, long before the World Cup began. Between online sales and home appliance chains, screens with 4k technology increased by up to 100 percent in a single year, from September 2021 to the same month in 2022.
In general, the rise in demand for televisions in World Cup years ranges between 20 and 40 percent.
the B-side
The demand for televisions, as stated, had its counterpart in the lack of sales produced in the clothing industry in general, with some rebound in the last days of this month. Although the final numbers of the “box” of the Christmas season are not yet known.
As they assured in the commerce sector that is dedicated to clothing and footwear, from the second half of November (the World Cup started on the 20th of that month) until December 19, with the final of the tournament so awaited by the Argentines, In addition to this event, several holidays and days with very high temperatures interfered, which usually curb the impulse of residents to go shopping.
A survey of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of La Plata, for example, resulted in a drop in consumption so far in December of around 5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
“The most important drop occurred in clothing and footwear,” it was remarked from the entity.
Martín Bizet, with a clothing store in City Bell and a brewery in downtown La Plata, opined that “the World Cup is not compatible with the sale of clothing.”
According to the balance of the businessman in relation to commercial activity, the development of the disputed dispute in Qatar “favored gastronomy, but although we have observed that some rooms were filled with people, the truth was that many stayed long hours consuming nothing more than a soda or a coffee”.
In this sense, Bizet said that at the moments of the participation of the Selection “it gave the sensation of fullness in capacity, but the billing was not very important.”
On match days, down
The matches played by the Argentine cast subtracted commercial activity in the clothing stores, according to Bizet.
“I’m a soccer fan, so I share that enormous joy of winning a World Cup, but the reality is that in the years of the World Cup, not only this one, the clothing trade does not favor it.”
Part of the drop in clothing and footwear sales was due to the fact that the days the National Team played, the residents of the Region seemed only interested in the game and therefore a large number of venues closed during the minutes the game lasted. meeting and then, although they reopened, people went out to celebrate and ran clothes shopping from their agenda.
In line with this evaluation, the head of the area of the Shopping Centers of the Business Federation of La Plata -FELP-, Valentín Gilitchensky, specified that “on a match day of the National Team, 20 percent of what is sold was sold on a normal day.”
The World Cup, which this time as an exception took place in the prelude to summer in our country and not as it always happened in the middle of winter, caused consumption habits to be disrupted for Christmas. “The start of purchases was delayed for a few weeks,” the merchants agreed.
Along these lines, Bizet indicated that only after December 19 “sales rose a lot, because before that people had not gone out to do their Christmas shopping.”
