Less purchases of clothes and much more various tools and hardware: in July, according to Istat, sales in value fell by 2.2% compared to the previous month and by 7.2% in comparison with the same month of 2019 but if there is a real debacle for clothing, also thanks to, according to some observers, the postponement of the sales, with a decrease of 27.9% compared to July 2019 for tools and hardware materials on the other hand, an increase of 3.2% was recorded on July 2019.
This is the only growing sector.
The boom of the online business is also confirmed with a progress of 11.6% in the period examined by the Institute of Statistics compared to the decline in sales of 11.7% for businesses operating on small surfaces.
If we look at the first seven months of the year, trade as a whole recorded a decline of 8.5% but with large differences depending on the sales channel;
e-commerce, also thanks to the lockdown and the closure of most of the stores that sold non-food products, marked an increase of 28.5% compared to the first seven months of the previous year, while businesses operating on small surfaces, i.e. smaller shops, so-called neighborhood shops, recorded a 14.6% drop in sales (-3.9% those that sold food and -20% those that traded non-food products).
Large-scale distribution in the first seven months, on the other hand, held up registering a decline of 3.9%, with a growth of 4.4% for the food sector and a marked decline of -19.3% for the non-food sector.
Concern about the data has been expressed by trade associations and consumers who speak of "alarming" data.
Confcommercio, which in recent weeks had emphasized the record drop in consumption, comments on the decline in sales talking about worrying data, but recalls that the shift in balances in August, the month for which a rebound is expected.
Confesercenti stresses that "the trade crisis, triggered by the lockdown, is not over yet" and for this reason it is asking the government for interventions to support families to increase spending and consumption.
The country, - writes the president of the consumer union, Massimiliano Dona in a note - instead of improving, retreats.