sales of school supplies decline before the start of the school year

2023-09-01 21:52:00

With 357 million euros in turnover between June 26 and Sunday August 27, sales of school supplies are down 5.2% compared to the previous year.

By LL with AFP The average price of an article increased by 8.7%, from 2.9 euros to 3.16 euros. © Jean-François FREY / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/L’ALSACE/MAXPPP Published on 09/01/2023 at 9:52 p.m.

A “significant setback”. This is the observation made by the manufacturers AIPB and the panelist GFK on the eve of the start of the school year. Sales of school supplies are down, due to inflation but also to an older trend of reusing products purchased in previous years.

The GFK panelist measured “a significant decline in sales during the back-to-school season”, with a turnover of 357 million euros between June 26 and Sunday August 27, corresponding to a drop of 5.2% compared to the previous year, he detailed during a press conference.

Knowing that in the meantime the average price of an item has increased by 8.7%, from 2.9 euros to 3.16 euros, the drop in sales is even more marked in terms of the number of items sold: 113 million units sold, a decline of 12.8%.

“Unprecedented pressure on the budget”

The president of the Association of Stationery and Office Industrialists (AIPB) Nadège Helary nevertheless qualified the observation by recalling that the start of the school year will be held on September 4 and that the weeks not yet measured by GFK will be “decisive”.

“We are still positive about the results we will have in the next fortnight, customers go to stores and continue to buy branded products,” said Nadège Helary, also general manager of Staedtler France. Magali Saint-Laurent, of GFK, indicated that half of the sales over ten weeks were made during the last four.

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In addition to the “unprecedented pressure on the budget” of households, the drop in sales is also the result of a “democratization of the reasoned purchase of consumers, who tend to take inventory of supplies” purchased previously to “reuse them “, Observed during a videoconference Samuel Gimenez, of GFK. The complete report of sales during this return to school 2023 “will be available at the end of October”, further specified the panelist.