Natalia Muscatelli
01/14/2021 11:46
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 01/14/2021 11:46 AM
With
a fall that averaged 1.3% in December
, sales in supermarkets, supermarkets and local shops closed
last year with a slight decrease of 0.1%,
according to data from the consulting firm Scentia.
Despite this negative annual result for mass consumption, the data shows a
kind of "tie"
with respect to what happened in 2019. "Let us remember that 2019 had a decrease compared to 2018 of 7.3%", explains Osvaldo del Rio , owner of the consultancy.
In the last month of 2020 there was a marked difference in the behavior of the channels, they point out in Scentia: the
supermarket
chains
,
probably due to consumer purchases for the Holidays, had
a positive performance of 5.1%
.
On the other hand,
independent supermarkets,
including Chinese ones and the rest of the neighborhood shops, had
a decline of 6.4%.
Evolution of consumption in 2020, according to Scentia.
"This could be interpreted as a seasonal behavior and by the greater influx of people to these surfaces that had great restrictions in months of quarantine," according to Del Río.
Another characteristic of December was the difference between sales in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (AMBA), where the drop was 0.8%, and those in the interior of the country, which fell 4.1%.
An aspect common to all sales channels was that
home cleaning was the only category that grew
, with a rise of 7.4%.
This trend has occurred since the quarantine began.
The "summer" that supermarkets had in December resulted in only the hygiene and cosmetic basket being negative, while in self-services the laundry / household cleaning basket was the only positive.
In any case, if the behavior of all mass consumption products sold in the year is analyzed, there are three that finished with positive numbers:
food, with 3.5%;
breakfast and snack products, which rose 1.6% and household cleaning, with 8.1%.
In contrast,
the steepest
annual
drops
were seen in impulsive products such as sweets and snacks, which fell 11.9% on average, and beverages, which did so 6.2%.
Sales deteriorated further in the interior of the country.
Source: Scentia
The drop in consumption in all businesses is part of the context of high inflation.
This Thursday the INDEC will report the data on the evolution of retail prices during December but it is already known that annual inflation was around 36% in 2020. According to Scentia measurements, the weighted average price in stores accumulates an increase of 36, 5%.
Inflation was higher than the update that wages had during 2020, which did not appreciate to the same extent.
In addition to the loss of jobs or fall in income as a result of the pandemic.
Until November, according to the latest official data available, in the last 12 months, formal wages accumulated a rise of 34.9% compared to a year-on-year inflation of 35.8%.
NE
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