Excellent start for Mallorca Winter Sales

WHILE business association Pimeco described the start of the January sales on Saturday in Mallorca as ‘excellent’, other businesses report mixed results.

Those in Palma de Mallorca seem to be faring better than those in smaller towns and villages. For Kling Palma Boutique sales were “very good,” according to Felisa Lopez who has owned it for 28 years.

“Everybody seems to be optimistic and in good spirits and we have done much better than the same time last year. We were busy all day long, especially on the first day, but we have done almost as well the rest of the week.

Although we did well before Christmas and Three Kings, people seem to have saved money for the sales,” she said. Sadly, not all shops have had such a positive response.

For Boutique Piccola, also in Palma de Mallorca, things were “not great, but about the same as last year,” according to co-owner Queta Calafat who has had the shop for nearly 20-years.

“Things are more difficult at the moment. People are buying fewer things, but when they do come in they know what they want,” said Queta.

For the shop Blush in Portal Nous in Calvia, things have gotten so bad it will be closing in about a month’s time. “I opened the shop about five years ago and did ok in the first year, but the economic crisis hit the following year and I have never really been able to do as well as I had hoped,” said owner Elaine Pearson.

“Sales so far have been worse than this year so I am really discounting on practically everything in the shop in a kind of clearance sale.” Meanwhile, consumer group FUCI forecast shoppers will spend €90 each during the sales, a 6 per cent increase in spending this year, the biggest year-on-year rise since 2008.

December 2011 sales

THREE in four businesses in Mallorca say that their sales in December 2011 were worse than the same month in 2010.

A fifth feel that there was no change and only four per cent think that their sales were better, according to a survey by the small and medium business association in Mallorca, Pimeco.

Meanwhile, nearly three in 10 businesses in Mallorca felt that their December sales were better than the month before. More than half said that sales were about the same and less than a fifth said they were worse.

In Palma de Mallorca businesses fared better with more than a third saying that December sales were better than November, while in villages only a fifth said they had more sales.

By Nicole Hallett