Thursday, 20th November 2008
Shop owners expect tough Christmas
Photo: Jason Borg.
Sixty-four per cent of retailers believe business prospects for the Christmas season will be either bad or very bad, according to a survey carried out by the Chamber for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises - GRTU.
With barely a month left for Christmas Day, just 25 per cent were optimistic that their prospects would be good and eight per cent said they were uncertain, according to the survey findings seen by The Times.
Among the main reasons given were a lack of client confidence, a drop in purchasing power and the revised utility tariffs. Asked about the state of their business today, 57 per cent said it was bad or very bad, 35 per cent reported it as being good and eight per cent said it was average.
Furthermore, 36 per cent of respondents said they were considering laying off employees, 12 per cent said they would close some of their shops or part of their shop and 11 per cent that they would close down.
Asked about prospects for the next six months, 49 per cent of respondents said they were negative and 35 per cent spoke of uncertainty. Just eight per cent said prospects were positive and another eight per cent said they were stable.
The survey was conducted among 100 GRTU members involved in selling a whole range of products and services.
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Comments
Of course you can blame the Government. It is picking out the last pennies (or cents) from the peoples pockets, so how can people spend?
RECESSION IS HERE
PS- Mr.ZAMMIT youre Caps lock is on...
Self-employed which number to more than 18,000 (or so) in this country don't want subsidies they want initiatives like the Notte Bianca in Valletta, less bureacracy and red tape from all the relevant authorities, more and better tourists both by air and by sea, less taxes and capital projects which increase the aesthetics, land value and clientele the SME's need to survive a cuthroat national and international market!!!!
The new W&E bills have given none of the above impetus to the contrary they have dampened the business outlook and sent shockwaves all over the island!!
As someone used to say "Nifs Gdid lis-self-employed" please!!
prices and deals for the Maltese customers once we joined it? Do you remember Goverment spokespersons saying that once the operator of the Cargo Handling is change will start to have lower prices for importing goods and so cheaper prices? So what happened? Why is everyone moaning here?Someone needs to give us a reply ! Aahh I forgot that Christmas is coming not a general election!
I get most of my gifts for half the price I pay here and that is including the post which is very expensive especially from the UK.
I bought two Educational toys laptop by Vtech for my sons, for €120 postage included (€35), the same toy, but with less features cost € 135 EACH from a local shop.
I also know for a fact that shipping is expensive for importers but the item is usually purchased for 1/10 the price we pay for it.
Tell me Mr. Shop owner what would you do??? Maybe if you stop ripping us off you will get more costumers!!!!!!!!!
I myself have my husband who has been made to work less hours therefore we will surely be very careful how much we spend. I have two girls both teenagers who will be sitting for A levels and O levels so they go to evening private lessons for them. we have to take priority how to spend money.
We gain satisfaction when friends accept our gifts and kind gestures.
But when it comes to shopping with my wife I'll be in in line for a stroke with blood pressure and cortisol rising.The stress of making on the spot decisions makes it very stressful.
My wife is different shopping for her is a good relieving stress therapy.
Perhaps being a ' tough Xmas' with less shopping addicts around I'll wish all of you, from the bottom of my heart, a stressless Xmas.........my only one in the last 25 years :)
Freight: Malta is an island and freight charges play an important part in the costings. You might get one laptop delivered to you for around EURO 50 but when an importer brings an order in he doesn’t just get charged by weight, he gets charged by volume as well. Freight isn’t cheap, especially if it comes by air freight.
Now, most of the importers will be faced with the expenses of the WEEE and Waste and packaging directives. Some can try to absorb the costs, others cannot.
With regards to prices; there is no doubt that in Malta there is much over trading (that is to say, too many shops for such a small place). The result is that if each of these shops gets their imports from abroad, the chain of import is fragmented and none of these shops has the bargaining power to buy in large quantities and get better discounts.
A large retail store in Italy got their orders in for Sony laptops. A whole warehouse of laptops – 500 pieces of each model. Who in Malta has that amount of capital to invest in stock and then wait for it to sell and then has to also face the warranty?
Cont...
Look in your inbox for an e-mail from GRTU entitled: GRTU Quick Survey. I can assure you that this survey was filled in by many as we are worried about our losses.
Now the interesting issue is that these guys had never and never asked us any questions for statistics.
So from where are they getting their statistics.
Let’s make a private survey and see how many retailers have participated in this non sense survey.
Answer: - NONE
Last year even during the January Sales, we had very low turnout. We expect worse this year.
But we cannot blame the govt for these things. The whole world is effected, so why not us?
I am not talking of a few cents but differences of up to 100% and even more.
Whenever possible I purchase over the internet or buy stuff when I go on trips abroad. I have saved several hundreds of euros in the process.
IF YOU WHERE USE TO WORK 40 HOURS A WEEK AND AT ONCE YOU HAVE TO WORK 32 HOURS.......WHAT YOU WILL DO!!!
AND THOSE THEY TOLD THEM AFTER CHRISTMAS NO WORK...WHAT THEY WILL DO!!!!
I THINK THIS TIME GRTU IS RIGHT.....AND MR GONZI SHOULD DO SOMETHING....LIKE MR BROWN IS DOING IN ENGLAND.