Emilia Vexler
08/08/2020 - 7:01
- Clarín.com
- Society
As in many nearby businesses, due to the coronavirus pandemic, toy stores can only open on limited days and hours , let very few customers pass at the same time or serve them from the door. On the side of those who buy, time is running out. Even for those who want to buy online , because delivery can take several days. There is little more than a week left for Children's Day, which this year falls on Sunday August 16 and the sector calls to anticipate purchases , to avoid long lines at toy stores and prevent infections.
City toy stores must be closed on Saturdays and Sundays. That leaves five more business days to choose the gifts on site or buy them online and pick them up at the premises. That's where the problem lies, because in one way or another, people will approach toy stores : sales show an encouraging forecast for the Argentine toy industry, which has been hit hard after two years of falling production. From the chamber of the sector they explain that parents will make an effort for Sunday 16 to give a " compensation " to the children for these long months of confinement, and in fact many of the products that are growing in sales are associated with the use of time free that children are doing in this quarantine.
Take away, entering the premises or going to look for what was bought online: they fear that there will be lines in toy stores for Children's Day. (Fernando of the Order)
"The country is very varied in terms of the sector, for example, in Jujuy you could enter toy stores and a few days ago they did not go back to phase 1 and the people who did not buy there could accumulate now. In the city, the schedule allowed is from 11 am to 9 pm , you can enter one person for every 15 square meters and very recently they were able to open toy stores on the avenues. They are going to get closer to the premises. In Province, the sale is only take away and it also generates delays . Due to all these differences, even more so in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), we ask the whole country to buy the gift for the children beforehand ", Emmanuel Poletto, president of the Chamber , explains to Clarín Argentina of the Toy Industry (CAIJ).
Either due to the restrictions on the entry of customers to the premises -as it happens in the City and in the areas of the country with fewer restrictions- or the take away, in the Province, it is the last minute purchases that generate the dreaded agglomerations.
According to e-commerce data collected by the sector, in recent days the online sale of toys increased 400% , because the quarantine encouraged merchants to sell on Instagram or create online stores. "Many of these transactions (also from Mercado Libre) were anticipating the purchase of Children's Day . But many more are going to go shopping even the previous Saturday. I myself saw it for Father's Day, rows where there was no social distancing. If there are many more clothing stores than toy stores, the situation for this Sunday could be dangerous, "he adds.
The fear is for last minute purchases. (Photo: Fernando de la Orden)
The concern is such in the area that Poletto discussed it in the province directly with Augusto Costa, the Bonarense Minister of Production, and with his Buenos Aires counterpart, José Luis Giusti.
"The merchants want to sell but also protect themselves and prevent their employees from being infected. We want the same care with customers, something that can be avoided with a planned purchase ", closes the president of the toy makers.
So far, the most chosen gift in advance of Children's Day are board games , something that intensified from the first month of isolation of the five that boys and girls already have at home. Sales of educational games also rose . The curiosity of the anticipation of the gift is that skateboards were also chosen a lot . From the Chamber they assure that the date, winter, is not prone to the boom of articles to use outdoors and that these sales are probably due to recreational outings "or the desire to go out."
The clear thing is that more toys are bought. Promotions with public banks - such as Banco Ciudad, which from August 10 to 13 will offer discounts of 30% and 3 installments without interest; or the same discount plus the 12 interest-free installments of the BNA cards - generate good expectations for this date and in recent days they have already shown a strong reactivation .
The Children's Day season represents 60% of the annual toy sales in the country and the “games and toys” item covers more than 50% of the gifts that are made. In toy stores that have 80% imported toys, the average ticket would be around $ 2,800 per unit per person, while in toy stores that offer 50% national products and 50% imported, the average ticket per toy would be estimated at $ 650, according to camera data.
In the area most affected by the circulation of covid-19, the AMBA, is 95% of the productive capacity of the toy industry that supplies all of Argentina. With the protocols that the chamber itself drew up and were later approved by the Government, the entire sector is currently operational , both in factories and in customer service. August is going to be the month in which the toy joins the small list of items that do not have the numbers in red.
ACE
