Sales fall in the shopping malls as the consumer index of the consultants abeceb.com, in February the shopping malls suffered its third consecutive fall in quantities sold. The INDEC February data showed that sales in the shopping malls ceased to grow: in quantities, interannual growth was only 0.3%. But since December the variations were below two digits (9.7% in December and 2.5% in January), the Agency finally acknowledged the recession in the sector. Actual sales calculated according to the price index for abeceb.com result in a fall of 5.6%, the third consecutive since December, in an index that has been slowing steadily since August. He was observed in December, a fall of just 0.1 per cent, but by January, it was 4%. The high elasticity of the marketed products in shopping centres coupled with the low possibility of modifying the composition of the demand on them produced these results in the context of the current crisis.

For March is expected to continue this contractive trend. According to the data released by the Argentina Confederation of enterprises (CAME), the units sold at retailers fell 14.8% compared to March 2008. With regards to the different items sold in shopping centres, there were steep falls. For example, sales of textiles and clothing decreased 22.4%, of footwear, 22.7%, bazaars and gifts, 12.6%, and those of articles of sports, 11.6%. Meanwhile, meat retail sales fell steadily since March of last year (with the exception of August). On the other hand, supermarkets were not so affected and still not felt strongly the recession. While the INDEC published a rise for February of 18.6% in actual sales, abeceb.com estimated that it was 4.4 per cent.

Although this value is low, it is twice the growth experienced last December. However, supermarkets are facing a scenario that is a little more encouraging than the centres of shopping thanks to the low elasticity of the demand facing the. We will surely find a change in the composition of the demand of consumers who went to buy leading brands to buy second brands but inevitable fall of the demand quantities.