Retail sector suffers, as supermarkets see turnover slump almost 8 percent
Not only is the slump in sales across all sectors of retail commerce showing no signs of recovery, but entrepreneurs are saying that the worst is yet to come. It appears there is no exception to the phenomenon, as it has not spared any section of the market, be it stores selling electronic goods or clothing shops and supermarkets.
The average rate of decline in sales across the supermarket sector over the first nine months of 2016 is estimated at 7.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
The drop in supermarket sales was particularly steep in September, when they fell by 7.19 percent compared to the last month of summer 2015, while the decline came to 4.3 percent in the first week of October and 5.6 percent in the second.
The entire retail commerce sector is going through one of its most difficult periods since the outbreak of the crisis in 2008. Sales have been registering one record low after another in 2016, with unprecedented year-on-year losses, and no one can say when the slide will bottom out.
Apostolos Vakakis, chief of Athens-listed Jumbo stores, stated a few days ago that “we can hear the creaking of the market, and it will soon grow louder.”
