Concerns about purchasing power and structural disinterest have penalized the summer sales, indicate the professionals in a first assessment.
Is it the consequence of concerns about purchasing power that would push the French to caution? The sign of a growing lack of interest in a high point of consumption, weakened by increasingly frequent price reductions throughout the year? At the time of the first balance sheet on Monday, professionals showed their disappointment. “Sale periods generate more sales than non-sale periodsexplains to AFP Sophie Brenot, president of the Federation of leather goods retailers. But they lose interest from year to year in the eyes of buyers. »
The disappointment is all the stronger as some hoped that the French, penalized by inflation, would take advantage of the opportunity to buy cheaper clothes, shoes or bags. “You could wonder if there was going to be a windfall effect with a quest for low prices, but that didn’t happen”notes Gildas Minvielle, director of the economic observatory of the French Fashion Institute (IFM).
The IFM asked professionals about the first fifteen days of the sales, which generally give the the. The result is an average drop in sales of 4.5% compared to the previous year. “There were no good surprisescontinues Gildas Minvielle. When you have a market that is not dynamic, sales are no exception. » The Trade Alliance, which brings together professionals from department stores, clothing and footwear, has for its part noted a “slight improvement” sales during the third week of sales, after a “very bad start”, marked by a marked drop in footfall in stores. Compared to 2019, the pre-Covid period, the decline would be 13% according to the organization.
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This first assessment will bring grist to the mill of those who are calling for a reform of the balances. In June, Stéphane Rodier, the treasurer of the National Federation of Clothing (FNH), called for a “global thinking” to bring out “viable solutions that do not make us consume for the sake of consuming”judging the balances model “not at all ecological”.