Published on December 22, 2014 by Mathieu Bahuet on franchise-magazine.fr :
Sales down sharply by 5.1% last month on a like-for-like basis, according to the Procos Federation: retailers are still suffering from a deterioration in consumer spending.
Specialized retail activity declined sharply in November, ending the month at -5.1% compared with November 2013, on a like-for-like basis, according to the monthly Procos Federation panel (50 retailers surveyed on their performance in 50 reference centers, located in 15 conurbations).
"Calendar shifts certainly played a role", says Procos, with November 2014 counting the same number of working days as November 2013, but one Saturday less. Weather conditions also had an impact on activity, with November 2014 the second mildest November since 1900, behind 1994...
Under these conditions, personal goods chains have still not begun sales of their winter collections, and some of them recorded falls in business of 10% last month, as did several culture-leisure specialists. Foodservice and health & beauty were spared overall, but remain in negative territory. Only household equipment is recovering, says Procos, with garden centers - which traditionally record their peak in November - doing particularly well.
City-center retailing saw the steepest declines: -11.4% for shopping malls and -5.4% for ground-floor stores. Out-of-town stores proved slightly more resilient, limiting their declines to 5.1% for shopping mall stores and 2.1% for medium-sized stores in business parks.
For the first eleven months of the year as a whole, retail activity continues to deteriorate, at -0.9% according to Procos (260 member chains).
