The replenishment problems in the retail trade eased somewhat in the Christmas business. In December, 62 percent of the companies surveyed by the Ifo Institute complained about delivery bottlenecks; in November it was 71 percent. In addition, retailers are less pessimistic about the coming months. “The relaxation comes at exactly the right time for many retailers,” said the head of the Ifo surveys, Klaus Wohlrabe, on Thursday. “Nevertheless, there will still be gaps on the shelves.”
Children should be happy: just under a third of toy retailers reported missing goods in December. The same applies to bicycle dealers and clothing retailers. The proportion also fell to less than 50 percent in DIY stores.
The trade in consumer electronics, on the other hand, remains the most affected: almost every retailer reports delivery bottlenecks. It also remains problematic in the car trade, in the trade in household appliances and in the supermarkets, where 86 percent each complained that goods were missing. (dpa)