Businesses sold almost 35%: which items work best?

The retail sales they fell almost 35% year-on-year in June, measured in quantities, within the framework of the lower generalized consumption caused by the drop in income and the reduced circulation of people in the streets due to the coronavirus, according to a survey by the Argentine Confederation of Medium-sized Enterprises (CAME).

Without considering the performance of the activities of certain items considered essential -food and beverages, pharmacies and hardware stores-, the drop in sales was 43%.

“All the measured items declined in the face of the lower general consumption caused by the drop in income, less circulation of people on the streets, and uncertainty. In the first six months of the year, SME retail trade thus accumulates an annual collapse of 32.5% compared to the same months of 2019 “, detailed the SME entity.

The report, which surveys sales under the online modality As in physical stores, it showed that in June with the largest number of open stores, the decline was less than in May, and that the drop in the AMBA region reached 49.3%, while in the rest of the country it was 20, 3% year-on-year.

After three and a half months of quarantine, some cities in the interior of the country with controlled cases of Covid-19 they began to activate their commercial activities, albeit slowly.

If only non-essential items are measured, the drop at AMBA it was of 60.7% and in the rest of the country sales declined by 20.3%.

The item with the lowest year-on-year drop in the month was pharmacy (-12.7%), always measured in quantities, which divided by zones, the annual retraction is 8.6% in the country, without AMBA, and 16.8% in AMBA, according to Télam.

The second branch with the lowest drop was foods and drinks (-19.4%), “although the decrease is very important; a large part is explained by the strong transfer of sales to hypermarkets, especially in CABA and Greater Buenos Aires.”

In Hardware stores, electrical materials and for the building Annual sales decreased 22.9% for the country average.

In dress, the average fall in the country was 47.5% but with a decrease of 23.3% in the interior of the country and of 71.7% in AMBA.

“There were many shortages in stores, partly due to lack of liquidity to buy stock and suppliers that only accepted cash invoicing. That, plus the limited circulation of people and protocols that do not allow more than one or two people at a time in the business, they crushed the sale, “according to CAME.

He recalled that “the latter was felt in the Father’s day, because in this area between which the client chooses and is tested, the productivity of the business is reduced, queuing outside. ”

Finally, on a qualitative level, for 42.4% of the companies consulted their situation in June was bad, for 11.5% critical, and for 29.6% regular.

Cheap Credits for Non-Essential Businesses

The Buenos Aires Government, through City Bank, threw one line of credits at an annual nominal rate of 12% to recompose working capital in the businesses with non-essential activity, By a sum of up to $ 500,000.

The line will be available as of this Friday through the bank’s website (www.bancociudad.com.ar) and will have a payment period of 24 months in total and six grace months for the payment of the first installment.

The entity explained that, for example, a credit of $ 100,000 taken out in July, it would pay, for the period of 18 months plus six of grace, it will have an initial fee of $ 6,600 only in January 2021.

As officially explained, the line will have a subsidy of 12 percentage points over the current rates offered by the bank for loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which will be granted in equal parts by the City Government and by the financial institution.

This is in addition to a package of measures given by the Government of the Nation recently.

To access the credit it will be necessary:

– Have the Mipyme certificate granted by the Ministry of Productive Development

– Have a current or pending authorization of the City Government.

“This initiative joins other credits and benefits offered by the entity for merchants and for different productive activities in the city, which provide financing and reduce costs, while helping to develop electronic commerce and teleworking,” he assured. the entity.

The Buenos Aires Government will condone the ABL

The government of the City of Buenos Aires will send the Legislature a package of economic measures that includes the cancellation of the payment of the Lighting, Sweeping and Cleaning (ABL) tax to non-essential businesses that this Wednesday must re-close in the new phase of the quarantine decreed in the framework of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The measure will be extended during June and next July and will benefit some 110 thousand non-essential businesses. that “they refer to the sale of goods and provision of services”.

Among the premises contemplated are bars, restaurants, bookstores, hairdressers, toy stores, hotels and gyms, some of which have been closed since the beginning of the isolation and others that were able to reopen their doors briefly and that tomorrow they will have to lower their blinds again due to the hardening. insulation.

According to spokesmen of the Buenos Aires Government, the implementation of the measures promoted “will represent for the City of Buenos Aires a total fiscal cost of 600 million pesos“, in a context in which the administration registers a drop in the collection of the order of 35% average in the last three months.

It seeks to provide assistance to nearly 110,000 businesses

The package of measures, which will be sent in a bill to the Buenos Aires Parliament, foresees that also during June and July the tax on the use of public space for commercial activities on public roads will be forgiven, that is, those gastronomy venues that they have chairs and tables on the sidewalks.

Another initiative that will be analyzed by lawmakers points to an extension of the suspension of embargoes, which runs until August 31.

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