Sales in supermarkets do not rebound and in October they hit six-month lows

Sales in supermarkets showed a monthly drop of 1.7% in October and had their worst record in the last six months. a sample of what it is costing to recover consumption. The positive fact of the day was that wholesale self-services did show improvements.

According to the numbers released this Thursday by INDEC, the seasonally adjusted series of the Supermarket Survey showed its worst figure since April. In addition, In interannual terms, a collapse of 17.8% was observed, the highest since Javier Milei was president.

Regarding the means of payment, compared to a year ago, the instruments that grew well above inflation were those categorized as “other”, which include vouchers, coupon boxes, basket ticket, gift card and QR code. However, these barely represented 10.4% of total operations.

The credit cards were the most used tool (46.3%), with a nominal increase somewhat higher than the inflation of the period, while the debit cards and the cash They exhibited a deep collapse.

At the product level, the only division that showed a year-on-year increase similar to that of the general INDEC Consumer Price Index (CPI) was fruits and vegetables. The most significant real drops were seen in electronics, clothing and beverage items.

“In this way, the accumulated January – October 2024 closed with sales for a total of $14.5 billion and a accumulated decrease of 12.3% real. In addition, sales for the year were also below the same period in 2022 (-10.4%), 2021 (-8.7%), 2020 (-8.0%), 2019 (-7.3%), 2018 (-17.4%) and 2017 (-18.4%)”, the consulting firm emphasized Politikon Chaceither.

The Supermarket Survey carried out by INDEC for October covered 94 companies with a total of 3,165 outlets distributed throughout the country. It should be noted that the institute takes as a basis the supermarket companies that have at least one outlet whose sales room area is equal to or exceeds 200 m2 or that the sum of the sales room area of ​​all their outlets of sale is equal to or exceeds 200 m2. Therefore, it does not cover all supermarkets, but only those that meet this condition.

Wholesale self-services and shopping malls

The performance was different in the Wholesale self-serviceswhere, according to INDEC, Sales increased 2.1% monthly in October and were at their highest level since February of this year. Even so, In annual terms the decrease was 22.8%also the tallest of the Milei era.

Meanwhile, In shopping malls, consumption registered a negative variation, at constant prices, of 7.8%. The real contraction was much deeper in the City of Buenos Aires than in the rest of the districts. The textile, electronics and bookstore sectors were the most affected during the period.