Malls report sales up 3% this Christmas

Retail sales at shopping centers rose 3% at the end of this year. According to a survey by the Brazilian Association of Shopping Center Retailers (Alshop), which covers 7,500 stores nationwide.

However, in the view of Alshop's president Nabil Sahyoun “if we take new stores into consideration, we haven't grown a bit.” He says Christmas sales had been estimated to expand by 4.5%, but they were affected by harder-to-get credit, especially among lower-income people, as interest rates have risen. Dollar hikes also harmed retail in several sectors, and inflation made customers less inclined to shop. Still according to Sahyoun, lack of confidence about the economic measures to be adopted in the coming year was also a problem.

Data from the study show that perfumery and cosmetics had the best Christmas performance this year, with real sales up 10% from 2013. Clothing reported a 8.5% increase compared to Christmas last year, and shoes were up 9.5%.

“The year wasn't so good for shopping centers because the World Cup cut down the number of workdays and also the revenue. Rolezinhos [large groups of young people, often from impoverished neighborhoods, who decide to visit the mall at once] caused a few malls to shut down, and the elections were also detrimental to sales,” Sahyoun added.

The survey further reveals that stores hired 138 thousand new employees at the end of the 2014, which corresponds to a 2.2% surge against the previous year.

Estimates for 2015 are not much more promising, Alshop's president believes. “The revenue compared to this year will be up 2%, taking into the 29 malls to be inaugurated, expansions at existing malls, supermarkets, and airport stores. It's a lot more growth in stores than in revenue.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira