IIt’s 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 7, and Alain raises the curtain with a heavy heart. On the window of her women’s clothing store “Ober”, located rue Saint-Placide (shopping artery of the capital), the posters “SOLDES” and “- 50%” written in XXL and bright red, are no longer enough to attract customers looking for bargains. In thirty-five years, he had “never seen that” His turnover, since the opening of the sales on June 22, is “very, very disappointing”: – 30% compared to 2019, the last financial year not disturbed by the epidemic. “We see 30 to 40 people a day, on weekdays, confides the sixty-something. And Saturdays are catastrophic, we do not exceed fifty… ”
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The summer sales are off to a “very bad start”, confirms the professional federation Alliance du commerce (clothing, shoe and city center businesses), which points to a 19% drop in sales in stores in the first eleven days of the annual operation (June 22-July 2) compared to 2019. With the stores showing a -28% drop in attendance, “one in four customers are missing in store; it is extremely important, ”laments Yohann Petiot, general manager of the professional federation. A free fall that worries the sector and that online sales, although growing strongly (+ 68%), are not enough to compensate.
New arbitrations
The fault is “a trend erosion”, explains first Olivier Babeau, president of the Sapiens Institute and professor of management sciences at the University of Bordeaux: “With the Internet, the extent of its offer and its attractive prices the year, the sales are no longer the high mass of consumption that they once were”.
But this desertion of shops is “also most likely cyclical” and induced by the inflation generated by the war in Ukraine, which began on February 24, adds the specialist. Thus, “either the French are putting aside in fear of what tomorrow will bring, or they are already showing problems of purchasing power”. The latter, “when they have to arbitrate on their consumption, generally do so to the disadvantage of the clothing sector”, specifies Yohan Petiot. And even more, on the eve of the summer holidays: “Between saving to fill up their car and taking advantage of their holidays or consuming in clothing, their choice is clearly emerging. »
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In detail, men’s and children’s textiles “mainly drive the clothing market” – against women’s textiles and footwear – we observe at the Trade Alliance. “We generally sacrifice our own consumption, deciphers Olivier Babeau. If we think of the housewife’s basket, it is on these products that she grumbles. » Alain, from the « Ober » shop, observes it on a daily basis and confirms: « Customers come for targeted purchases. They have scrutinized their wardrobe before coming and no longer make compulsive, spontaneous purchases as is usually the case during the sales…”
“I struggle to be optimistic”
In more than three decades in the business, this manager has “gone through ups and downs”. Affable, he recounts the economic crisis, the yellow vests, the epidemic… But this morning in July, he “struggles to be optimistic” and worries “about the situation” and the charges which “weigh on his shoulders” [les loyers commerciaux étant indexés à 75 % sur l’inflation]. “I made the choice not to pass on the 10 to 20% increase in the costs of my suppliers to the selling prices,” he confides. My clients, who are regulars, would blame me for it…” For how much longer?