Canterbury earthquake fells weekend retail sales

Wednesday 8th September 2010

Canterbury’s earthquake immediately hit Eftpos payments in the region with Saturday sales down 43% and Sunday sales down 18% on last year.

The $8.1 million drop in both days’ trade sliced a third from the total trade compared to last year. Stores that would normally be experiencing an increase in sales due to Father’s Day trading were hit particularly hard, according to Paymark figures.

Gift stores were down 81% compared to last year, while camera and photo shops dropped 79% and electronics stores sank 77%.

August had already been a tough month for Canterbury, with year-on-year statistics showing the region was down 0.6% in electronic card payments.

“Eftpos is a crucial part of everyday business,” said chief executive Simon Tong.

“We’ve been working closely with banks, telecommunications companies and our partners to ensure that our network continues to operate smoothly for these retailers. We are offering businesses that have been unable to trade over the past few days a waiver on some, or all, of their terminal feels to help ease the burden.”

The rest of the country has also experienced difficult winter trading, with spending outside of petrol stations and supermarkets down by 0.4% on August 2009, and annual growth of only 0.2% over the past four months. The last time such austerity was experienced was during the November to February period of 2008/09.

Bucking the national trend, sales on the West Coast rose 5.1% and Palmerston North boosted electronic trading by 4.7%. Sectors experiencing increased sales included hotels with an 8% lift and car parts and servicing outlets that were up 5%.

Father’s Day outside of Canterbury provided some retailer light-relief, with spending on jewellery and watches up 21% on the same Friday-Sunday period from a year ago. Household appliance sales rose 23% on the same period and a meal out on Sunday saw restaurant spending up 10% on the day.

Businesswire.co.nz

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