Products sold at Christmas will rise 20%

By: Cristina Alvarado O.

While thousands of Peruvians hope to spend a much calmer Christmas than the year of the pandemic, the vendors of different commercial emporiums in Lima do not know if they will be able to pay the December bills.

This week the Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL) warned that the prices of the products sold this Christmas would increase by up to 20%, this due to the rise in logistics expenses and the rise in the exchange rate.

The CCL states that the price of each of the containers with which goods are brought from abroad previously cost between US $ 2,000 to US $ 3,000. However, now its price ranges from US $ 12,000 to US $ 15,000.

This increase in the price of transportation, as well as other local factors, have forced Lima’s merchants to raise the price of their products.

A complicated campaign

“We are stagnant. Our recovery is not moving forward and this Christmas season we will sell half of what we sold in 2019 ″, says Román Nazario, vice president of the Roundtable Chamber of Entrepreneurs.

Román Nazario is a merchant of imported articles and every day he feels more distressed since This Christmas, dolls, trolleys and different toys will cost twice what they did before the arrival of COVID-19. “A ball cost 10 soles in 2019, now it will cost you 20 soles. Before, a battery cart could cost you 50 soles, now it will be 100 soles, “he says.

This Christmas campaign Román Nazario hopes to sell half of what he sold before the pandemic. “The street vendors, the political noise and the reduced capacity play against us,” he says.

Like Román, there are more than 18,000 formal merchants who are concerned about the upcoming Christmas season at Mesa Redonda.

In different commercial points of Lima the situation is similar. Both in commercial points such as Polvos Azules, or Gamarra do not expect to have the same income as before the pandemic.

The reduced capacity

This is also the case of Florentino Zevallos, president of the board of directors of Polvos Azules. Florentino says that with the capacity at 50% due to the pandemic, sales fall. He and his colleagues try to sell original shoes, quality artifacts and provide all payment facilities to users. However, he mentions that by the end of the year they will lack money to pay their debts.

“We will not be able to cover expenses like other years. The people with the just enough to survive and the cost of living has risen a lot ”, Zevallos stated.

Although the CCL is optimistic when calculating that sales in the Christmas campaign will reach 80% of what corresponds in the same period of 2019. Merchants do not share this projection.

Ambulantes in Gamarra

Susana Saldaña is the president of the Gamarra Peru Business Association and has a clothing stall on the third floor of a gallery in the heart of Gamarra. She says that selling is an ordeal because hundreds of street vendors crowd the doors of the building and prevent customers from entering the premises to see the skirts, dresses and pants that are the most sold in the Christmas campaign.

“Yes, we think we could exceed the levels prepandemia. But informal trade is collapsing all income from formal ones. In addition, the government must put safeguards on imported clothing. Similarly, financing is needed for mypes. In addition, the capacity for production should rise to 70% since now they only work at 50% ”.

For the end of the year campaign, an expansion of the capacity to 80% in shopping centers is expected Well, today there is only 31%, according to the CCL. However, Christmas is approaching and we will see the real numbers in a couple of months.

Christmas campaign downwards

Logistics expenses have increased five-fold to levels never seen before, as well as the increase in the dollar has risen by 30% in one year due to the political instability, will translate into a price increase in incoming stocks for the Christmas season, according to the Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL).

The products have increased between 80% to 120% according to merchants of Round table. They affirm that the next strong campaign is the school one, which would also be affected by the high price of freight.

The word

Susana Saldaña, President of the Gamarra Peru Business Association

“More than 50 thousand people in Gamarra have still not been able to regain their jobs. That is not growth, that is wrong. When we manage to exceed the pre-pandemic figures, we can talk about growth. Not before that ”.