The street trade in Veneto has lost 20% of active businesses in the last 5 years. Ascom notes this.
If we exclude the retail trade of motor vehicles which grew by 6% from 2019 to 2023, in terms of business locations active in the regional territory, and by 1% between 2022 and 2023, all the other trade sectors retail, in these years largely characterized by the pandemic, have suffered significant setbacks: -7.3% overall for all sectors in the four years and -2.5% between ’22 and ’23.
However, if there is one activity that has suffered more than the others, it is street trading which between 2019 and 2023 saw its size decline from 9,598 businesses opened in ’19 to 7,601 in ’23. Which, in percentage terms, means a heavy -20.8% in the four-year period with an equally significant -6.4% if the comparison is limited to the two-year period 2022-2023.
“I don’t think we need a lot of analysts – comments the president of Fiva Confcommercio Veneto and Fiva Ascom Padova, Ilario Sattin – to understand that the situation is very serious. The pandemic, despite our operations taking place outdoors, was a big blow. If we then consider the poor capitalization of our companies and understand that months of inactivity end up decreeing the “de profundis” of those with lower margins”. Therefore, the pandemic as a trigger of the crisis, but it is not the only one. Precisely Covid – he continues – has convinced some municipal administrations to question the use of central squares, moving the market to places that the municipal bureaucrat defines as “more functional” but which, in reality, are ghettos most of the time even difficult to reach.” Ascom then points the finger at the difficulty of reaching the new market location and the uprooting of the stalls from the central squares.
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