Retail sales to begin on a high note

Retailers appear to have relatively high expectations for the winter sales, which start on Monday, January 8, and will last for more than seven weeks through February 28. The optimism stems from the rather positive picture of the festive period.

Referring to the course of the market during Christmas, the president of the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Enterprises (ESEE), Vassilis Korkidis, appeared fairly upbeat.

“A festive period has just finished that, according to the available data from the survey of the [ESEE’s] Institute of Commerce and Services, was for the first time in years dominated by a sentiment of normality, and has left – if marginally – a positive result both in sales volume and in turnover,” he said.

Korkidis expects the trend to continue during the winter sales but stressed that this positive climate cannot offset the losses in turnover the market experienced in previous years or significantly soften the impact from “overtaxation, expired debts, the lack of liquidity and the financial insecurity that have hurt Greek small and medium-sized enterprises in the years of the crisis.”

ESEE reminded in a circular on Thursday that stores can choose to stay open on the first Sunday of the sales period, on January 14.