Small retailers report sales drop

Small and medium-sized retail traders are none too pleased with their stores’ turnover during the spring sales that ended on Tuesday. The view is very different among retail chains, with market professionals saying their takings posted an increase, while the first four months of the year were seen to have been positive for the entire retail market.

This ambiguity is due to the shift in recent years from independent stores toward major chains, owned by Greek or foreign companies. According to the Hellenic Confederation of Commerce and Enterprises (ESEE), 70 percent of businesses with an annual turnover of below 30,000 euros posted a reduction in sales.

The data ESEE released on Wednesday, based on the estimates of local traders’ associations, showed that retail commerce turnover posted an average decline of 7.3 percent during the 2018 spring sales window, compared to last year. At the same time representatives of major chains that Kathimerini spoke to pointed to a 10-15 percent increase. This was thanks to the fact that most of them operated on Sunday, May 6, and some on May 13 too.

Traders in Athens and Piraeus reported a 10 percent yearly decline, while the drop was reported at 20 percent in Thessaloniki.