At least take out all the saints – Newspaper Kommersant No. 200 (7401) of 10/27/2022
[ad_1]
The depressed mood of consumers and the departure of part of the economically active population from the country against the background of mobilization leveled the efforts of restaurateurs and operators of shopping centers to attract visitors to Halloween. Interest in event events decreased by 20%, which negatively affects business revenue. Decreased activity creates fear among market participants about the failure of the December holidays.
The interest of restaurant visitors in event programs for Halloween fell by 20% over the year, Sergey Mironov, vice president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia, told Kommersant. According to him, against this background, market participants have significantly reduced their activity in terms of organizing thematic events and decoration. Restaurateur Semyon Nebolsin confirms that restaurateurs have almost no reservations for the upcoming weekend, and revenue is 30-50% behind last year. Halloween is celebrated on October 31st. In Russia, events usually take place on the last weekend of the month, which this year will fall on October 29-30.
The fall in consumer interest in Halloween is confirmed by Tinkoff Kassa data. They calculated that in the last week of October, the demand of Russians for pumpkins increased by 26% compared to the previous week, and a year earlier, the figure grew by 49%. The service predicts pumpkin purchases by the holiday weekend will be 55% lower than 2021.
The traditional growth in sales in gift and hobby shops on the eve of Halloween may also be less pronounced, says Alexey Vanchugov, managing partner of Vanchugov & Partners. “Many brands traditionally associated with this holiday among consumers have gone,” he notes. The owner of the Leonardo network, Boris Katz, talks about a drop in sales of carnival accessories, jewelry and other goods for the holiday.
Sergei Mironov suggests that the decline in interest in Halloween this year “is depressive, not economic.” This, according to the restaurateur, is indicated by the fact that in the daytime the traffic of establishments remained high and the number of sold business lunches is not decreasing. And Semyon Nebolsin believes that the outflow of the economically active population due to partial mobilization negatively affected the behavior of consumers: some were called up, and many left the country. Family members of the mobilized, according to the restaurateur, also often refuse to visit restaurants.
According to Indira Shafikova, managing partner of RedStone, shopping center operators are quite active in holding Halloween themed events this year, hoping to attract an additional flow of visitors. She explains that this is important in the face of an overall decline in activity: after the departure of foreign brands and the announcement of a partial mobilization, traffic is on average 20% behind last year. According to Ms. Shafikova, holiday events often heat up demand, facilitating impulse buying. Although the head of research and consulting at Focus Technologies, Mikhail Vasilyev, indicates that consumers now in general may respond less to thematic events. He assumes that shopping centers are unlikely to be able to overcome the backlog of traffic by 10-15% from last year’s figures due to them. “In general, people go to shopping centers less,” says Mr. Vasiliev.
The low interest of consumers in Halloween is already creating fears among catering operators about the New Year holidays. According to Sergei Mironov, October traditionally accounts for 7-8% of all New Year’s events, and this year their number has decreased. Semyon Nebolsin also speaks of a significant decrease in the number of bookings for the New Year holidays, doubting that demand will grow in November. A slight revival is possible at best in December, he calculates.
Mr. Mironov emphasizes that the fall in traffic at the end of this year will be a big blow to the industry. But now, according to him, market participants hope that consumer activity can still recover. Alexey Vanchugov also believes that the number of New Year’s events in shopping centers and traffic can be quite high, although he does not exclude that retailers’ turnover will decrease. RestCon CEO Elena Perepelitsa doubts that consumer sentiment will improve by the New Year, even if geopolitical tensions begin to subside.
[ad_2]
Source link
