The first week after reopening exceeded business expectations. In some sectors, things went much better in Switzerland than abroad.
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Fashion is a seasonal business. In the picture, a Manor customer examines the current shirt collection. (Image: Laurent Gillieron / Keystone, Lausanne, May 11, 2020)
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“Consumption is bad”, “Consumption harms the environment”, “Consumption destroys our society”: The otherwise loud criticism of mass consumption and its consequences died down suddenly nine weeks ago. “Spend your money” is instead the appeal from politics and business. The corona crisis has shown brutally how important spending money is for the prosperity of our economy and society. Private consumption is one of the biggest pillars of the Swiss economy. In 2019, according to the statistics portal Statista, its share of the gross domestic product was 53.1 percent, more than half. In total, the Swiss spent around CHF 371.5 billion last year.
Spending money has been limited in the past two months. Economists at Credit Suisse assume that consumer demand during the lockdown was 20 percent lower than before. Households have therefore spent CHF 12 million less on consumer goods and services. Restaurants, hairdressing salons, clothing stores and sports shops have felt this first hand during the forced break. Now they were allowed to open again, some on May 11th, most on Monday. Customers could finally spend their saved money again, for children’s toys, for shoes or for a new sofa. But why have Swiss people eased the most money? How did individual stores experience the reopening?
A survey by this newspaper of some chains and smaller boutiques shows that the furniture industry in particular got off to a good start. For example, Ikea has earned twice as much this week as it did in a comparable week before closing, according to a spokesman. «Every day was like a Saturday with us. The rainy weather certainly helped us. It was real shopping weather, »says the spokesman. Another reason is that people have been busy with their homes lately. Many customers therefore bought with a precise plan. As at the beginning of the lockdown, products related to cooking, the workplace or the garden went well.
Spring and summer assortment mixes
In the Pfister branches, too, the first week after the reopening was “extremely positive,” as a spokesman says. This was expected: in neighboring countries, which were allowed to open their shops on May 2, sales in the furniture trade were very good. The fact that customers have found their way into the branches is certainly also due to discount offers, which were not only used to advertise in the furniture industry. At Pfister, for example, there was a welcome discount of 15 percent.
Before the opening, however, the toy dealer Amsler Spielwaren, who has ten branches in Switzerland, had no idea. “We were very excited about the opening and expected everything between more and less sales,” says Managing Director Marcel Amsler. «Now we have a few days behind us and feel that there is a need to catch up in our area. Above all, school desks, which are traditionally taken care of in spring for the start of school in August, were briskly bought. »
“The children also loosen up the mood”
Overall, sales are slightly higher than on comparable days in the previous year. Spring and summer toys were also sold at the same time, from sandpit shovels to water pistols. “I see it very positively,” says Amsler. «Our customers are relatively relaxed. The children also loosen up the mood in the shop. Then we are lucky that we have a lot of space. »
Other companies don’t seem to have had a bad week either. The Import Parfumerie, which belongs to Coop, the shoe dealer Dosenbach-Ochsner AG, the Migros specialist stores as well as the fashion chains C&A and PKZ report a successful week with good sales. This is despite the fact that it was partly assumed to be “subdued consumer sentiment”, as is the case with Dosenbach-Ochsner.
Fashion stores abroad with a minus, in Switzerland with a plus
Manuela Beer, head of the Swiss fashion house chain PKZ, was also pleasantly surprised by the number of customers: “In Germany, Austria and Denmark, which were allowed to open earlier, sales in the fashion industry were initially up to 50 percent lower.” One reason, however, is that branches with little space were only allowed to open later and that the incomplete offer probably attracted fewer customers to the city centers and shopping centers.
Despite the successful reopening, the stores doubt that they will be able to make up for the loss of the past few weeks. It will also depend on how safe they feel whether customers will flow into the shops regularly again in the future. A significant increase in the number of cases of infected people would certainly be poison for customer frequencies, the Credit Suisse economists also write. But even if the number of cases can be kept low, in many cases sales will be lower than before due to the distance rules. Shops as well as restaurants, cafés and bars are only allowed to let in a certain number of people.
Economists are more optimistic than the associations
All in all, the analysts at the big bank Credit Suisse still draw a surprisingly optimistic forecast for Switzerland: if further easing and normality gradually returns, the estimated CHF 8 million that Swiss households saved during the two lockdown months will be 5 , 5 million francs were subsequently spent and put into circulation.
Companies don’t really seem to believe this yet. Especially restaurateurs who can only earn half as much as before the crisis due to the distance rules assume that they will be forgotten for a year. It doesn’t sound much better in retail.
“We have no illusions that we will quickly be back to the level before the crisis,” said FDP National Councilor Christa Markwalder, who chairs the Swiss Retail Federation. “In addition, a lot of sales were lost in the retail sector before the crisis. It will be very tough for many businesses. »
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