Christmas: the French reasonable in their spending

The end of year celebrations did not necessarily have the desired effect on stores. While the Omicron variant has been gaining ground for several weeks, the French have remained reasonable in their spending, as shown by the latest data on bank card transactions, specifies BFMTV. Since July 2021, their levels have been around 10% higher than the same period in 2019, the last year before the epidemic. But between November 15 and December 12 of this year, those levels were only 7% higher.

“The return of cautious consumer behavior with the 5th wave seems to affect restaurants in particular, where spending has fallen since mid-November and has reached minus 4% compared to the same period in 2019, when it had stabilized around 4% during the three previous months “, specifies the Ministry of Economy and Finance to BFMTV.

Significant drop for toy stores

When we look at sales by distribution channel, between November 1 and December 12, we see that the French spent less in certain stores, especially the toy sector, which is nevertheless courted by customers in this time of year.

According to data from the economic data specialist PayLead, all specialized brands such as Joué Club, King Jouet or La Grande Récré are thus down by 15% compared to 2020, for the period between November 1 and December 12. . The same is true of the sales of stores specializing in electronic or cultural products, which also decreased by 4% compared to 2020. Only the sales of stores specializing in sports articles increased by 24%.

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At the end of 2021, the French have not referred to e-commerce sites to do their Christmas shopping either. Sales on Amazon, CDiscount, Vinted, as well as AliExpress are on average less good than in 2020 with a decrease of 13%.

Just like stores specializing in organic products, which saw their turnover drop compared to last year. In contrast, general supermarkets stabilized their sales. The three companies that have increased their market share the most, compared to 2020, are Intermarché, Leclerc and Aldi.