Natalia Muscatelli
11/11/2020 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 11/11/2020 6:01 AM
After seven months of quarantine, 53.6% of the shops are fully operational.
Meanwhile,
39.2% are working partially and 7.2% remain unemployed,
according to a survey conducted by the Argentine Chamber of Commerce (CAC) between November 2 and 8.
Regarding the expectations that merchants have about the sales they will have during this month of November compared to October, 34% believe that there will be no variations, while almost 20% believed that they expect a drop of up to 25% in volumes sold.
Only 12.4% of merchants have the vision that their sales will increase
up to 25%.
Among the data collected,
almost 30% of the businesses indicated that, after seven months of the pandemic, their sales fell between 26% and 50%.
Meanwhile, another 22.7% said they had fallen as much as 25%.
Regarding the growth of online sales, which was the most vigorous channel during the isolation, the survey found that before the pandemic, 21.6% of businesses had up to 25% of their sales on the web.
That percentage went to
30.9%
, today.
November CAC survey
Other inquiries in the CAC survey referred to the delay of merchants in terms of the payment of wages and taxes.
In this sense,
74.2% stated that they were up to date with their staff.
And only 14.4% showed a delay of up to 25% of wages.
Companies of various sizes participated in the Chamber's survey;
up to 9 employees (50.5%);
between 10 and 49 employees (28.9%);
between 50 and 200 employees (15.5%);
and companies with more than 200 employees (5.1%).
The items surveyed were
retail trade, wholesale trade and gastronomy, among others.
54.6% of the surveyed companies stated that they carry out essential activities.
"In case your company rents a place for its operations, indicate what your current situation is", was another of the questions of the survey when inquiring about the debts of the merchants.
In this regard, 45.4% said that they do not rent, 30.9% that they pay under normal conditions and
19.6% of the sample indicated that they pay their rent partially,
that is, not as agreed with the owner .
Among other issues, merchants indicated that, on average, 28.8% of their employees are teleworking.
This percentage was higher among “non-essential” activities (41.8%).
Another question was what do you think is the most likely scenario for your company's workforce for
the next three months.
For the majority (51.5%) there will be no changes in their staff.
For 42.3%, the answer was a "reduction in the number of personnel"
and only 6.2% said that the number of employees could increase.
Finally, investment expectations showed quite pessimism in the sector:
only 22.7% of companies have investment expectations for the next few months,
the CAC survey said.
NE
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