The sales period that started today is “particularly important” and “critical for the survival of companies”, say the self-employed organizations. It is too early for a first assessment, but in the cities there were many people on the first day they know at Mode Unie.
“For small traders, these are the sales of the last chance to avoid bankruptcy,” they say bluntly at the Interprofessional Federation for Independent Entrepreneurs SDZ. So a lot depends on the winter sales that have just started. Self-employed organization Unizo agrees. “It has been a very difficult season”, Danny Van Assche, managing director of Unizo, looks back on the past few months.
“5 percent less was sold in the second half of 2022 than in the second half of 2021, and it was already a bad year then. The season got off to a slow start, it didn’t really get going until late December. The reason is that people the war situation and rising energy prices kept their purse strings in check. If the season has not been good, then the sales period, which is now particularly important, should make up for a lot.”
And Danny Van Assche is also looking further ahead and is hopeful for the period just after the bargains: “We expect a serious boost after January. Because about 40 percent of employees will only receive an indexation of 11 percent of wages in January and that will probably be a reason for many to make purchases.”
“Good first impression”
It is still too early for a first assessment, but Mode Unie has a good first impression. “We called around to our traders and there are a lot of people in the cities everywhere,” says Isolde Delanghe, director of Mode Unie. “The weather is sunny. People are enthusiastic. We see a good start.”
The winter sales run from Tuesday 3 January to Tuesday 31 January.
“A sticker with ‘-50%’ already makes our brains produce dopamine”: this is how you avoid bad purchases during the sales (+)
Sales start with discounts of an average of 30 percent
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