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Christmas decorations in the Frankfurt Zeil 2020: frustration when shopping?
Photo: Ralph Peters / imago images / Ralph Peters
There is a lack of material on construction sites, and chips are in short supply in car production.
However, delivery problems no longer only plague industry, but also German retailers.
74 percent of retailers complained about such problems in September, according to a survey by the Ifo Institute.
"The procurement problems from the industry have now also arrived here," said the head of the Ifo surveys, Klaus Wohlrabe.
"Some Christmas presents may not be available or will be expensive."
In the bicycle trade, all of the companies surveyed reported problems with their orders.
"There is currently sand in the gears of global logistics," said Wohlrabe.
"In addition, freight rates in shipping have increased significantly."
The after-effects of the timber price rally in the first half of the year were evident in DIY stores (99 percent) and furniture stores.
The shortage of chips and semiconductors means that not every product is immediately available at electronics retailers: That said 97 percent of retailers of consumer electronics.
In the motor vehicle trade (88 percent), delivery problems are particularly evident in the case of electric cars.
Trade association sees no bottleneck in Christmas goods
As a consequence, price increases are now also an issue for many retailers.
"The industry has announced price increases and this is now inevitably arriving in the retail sector," said Wohlrabe.
The trade association HDE appeased, however.
"With a view to the upcoming Christmas business, there is no need to worry," said the chief executive of the German Retail Association (HDE), Stefan Genth, of the Reuters news agency.
"The search for suitable Christmas presents is assured this year as well."
This time too, new releases and new models of very popular products could become scarce, as production bottlenecks could arise here.
"We don't expect people to stand in front of empty shelves when they go Christmas shopping," Genth said.
In the past few years, German retailers had a combined turnover of around 100 billion euros each in November and December.
mmq / Reuters
