If the holiday period remains a key moment for sales, 2024 is part of a difficult economic context after the riots of last May, marked by a significant drop in the purchasing power of the population. Mixed results for many traders.
The end-of-year holidays are often a period of excitement for retailers, but for 2024, the results are mixed. According to Ronan Daly, the president of the traders’ union, a large number of store managers saw a drop of 20 to 40% in their turnover during the Christmas holidays. “In any case, we noticed during Black Friday that many Caledonians were already preparing for their holidays by buying at discounted prices to give gifts” he explains.
But Ronan Daly remains positive: December still remains the best month of the year for many professionals in terms of treasury.
We are really in a context of very significant loss of purchasing power with many people unemployed, partially unemployed and this precisely explains the drop in activity during Christmas when we expected it.
Ronan Daly, president of the traders’ union
On the other hand, on the mass distribution side, the results are “very positive.” Some fresh holiday products such as oysters, shrimp and logs sold quickly. “We feel that this year, customers wanted to treat themselves during this festive period because we have almost sold out all our festive products such as the log, explains Elisabeth Baé, the deputy director of Géant Sainte-Marie. Oended much earlier than other years since we had a slightly more significant influence on this end-of-year period than in previous years.”
A phenomenon that she partly explains by the fact that the Dumbéa area, where another store of the distributor is located, was greatly affected. “We had a report from this population.” Although fresh produce sold well, the store’s toy section was hit hardest this year, seeing a drop of up to 30% in the store’s annual turnover.
Swiss
