December 2022 trading - a very mixed picture
Readers will note that most respondents this week are from the Western Cape. This is probably because I emailed Western Cape retailers earlier on Saturday than retailers in KZN and Gauteng. I will attempt to get responses from a much wider geographical spread this week for the newsletter to come out on Tuesday next week.
Peter Allen, Burton's/Monson's
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – December trading has been satisfactory so far. Despite load shedding constraints we are achieving positive growth on last year.
Martin Cohen, L. Cohen Outfitters
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – The first half of December has not been good. Second half has improved but on the whole disappointing.
Barry Selby, The Athlete's Foot
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – December trading and traffic in Cape Town is back to the norm we experienced last in December 2019 so turnover is up. This has been aided by the weak Rand (for overseas tourists ) and buoyed up by the increased numbers of Johannesburg customers who have made Cape Town their destination of choice.
Greg Bing, A.P. Jones
Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – Having been affected by a drought, a failing economy and Covid over the past 5 years or so, we are definitely starting to feel an upswing in the market. We are up for both November and December so far. This trend started with the lifting of the mask ban in early July 2022.
It would appear that we have broken the “R1000 barrier” and our ladies department is selling dresses at this price point and beyond for the first time in a while.
Very happy with results at this stage, but feet are firmly on the ground as things could change very quickly if the wrong leadership comes in to power.
I think that it would be safe to say that, if we did not have load shedding cocking everything up, we would be ecstatic under the circumstances.
Imran Lockhat, Famous Shoes
Durban, KZN, SA – No fireworks. Trade like any normal month in the year.
Lloyd Naidoo, Best Shoes
Pietermaritzburg, KZN, SA – December trading has been on par with last year's sales thus far. Very little hawker trade as generally expected. Most of our hawkers stop buying in November. Some hawkers returned after 2 years as their businesses were badly affected. We were fortunate to have some locals and holiday makers visit the Failsworth/Manchester Road area looking for bargains over this past weekend. The poor trading conditions have affected everyone here and we're just ticking over. There's very little disposable income for the low-to-middle income earners to spend on clothing and footwear. With all the financial and political challenges our country faces, we're choosing to remain optimistic for 2023.
Naseem Essack, Brandz
Port Shepstone, KZN, SA – Unfortunately, trading has been adversely affected by the load shedding.
Stage 6 load shedding especially with 4 hour sessions has a detrimental effect on sales as credit card sales are impacted due no connectivity.
Load shedding couldn't have come at a worse time.
