Sales this summer disappoint
Tradespeople appear somewhat disappointed by this summer’s sales and are not hiding their concerns about future conditions in the market. The deterioration in consumption and the halt in retail sales growth over the last few months were reflected by the sales that ended on Saturday, August 30. This was despite their quite generous nature, with discounts reaching as high as 70 percent in some cases. According to initial figures released by the Tradesmen Association of Piraeus, only 6 percent of companies reported a rise in sales, down from 23 percent last year. The majority (32 percent) estimate that the drop in sales ranged from 5 to 20 percent. The vast majority of the sample (85 percent) were small or medium-sized enterprises employing up to 20 people. The best spell of the sales period was undoubtedly the first two weeks (July 15 to 31), while transactions throughout August were far from satisfactory.
