Excluding the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – where each Municipality has a date – and excluding the Autonomous Province of Trento (where a rule has been in force for years establishing that each business chooses when to do them for a period of 60 days), for the rest of the country the sales will start on Saturday 6 July. In Veneto the time frame will end on the following 31 August.
Summer sales
«Great expectations regarding the 2024 summer sales? – asks the president of Federmoda Confcommercio Veneto and Federmoda Ascom Padova, Riccardo Capitanio – A pinch of trust is also mandatory because we have no alternatives given that if this were not the case it would mean that we would also have to add negative balances to a negative season. The expectations are of a different kind if only because we hope to recover what we have lost in these months of decidedly unstable, or rather, I would say, rather cold weather.” The hope is therefore that those who did not make purchases in the spring will pour the money they saved into the sales, but there are many doubts that overlap in the heads of fashion operators. «First of all – continues Capitanio – we observe the systematic “non-compliance” with the law which would like promotional sales to be prohibited 30 days before the start of the sales. It is enough to take a tour of the shops in any large or small center or even in shopping centers to realize that it is an outdated rule, not respected (perhaps even just out of necessity) and that it results in damage towards the few who persist to observe it. Not to mention the flood of messages arriving on mobile phones and which have been announcing, for weeks, preferential treatments (read: advance sales) towards customers”.
Wait
And yet, despite all this, the sales starting on July 6 are eagerly awaited. “One thing should be emphasized – admits the president of Federmoda Confcommercio Veneto and Ascom Padova – and that is the zero-cost spot that also affects small businesses that, otherwise, should invest a lot in communication. Then, as was said, it is likely that if the Azores anticyclone starts to do its job starting next week, consumers will have to buy something summery. Translated: we estimate a 2% growth compared to the same period last year, but it is a positive rebound compared to a season that has seen peaks of even -7%”. Finally, there is a question that is entirely Paduan and it is related to the construction sites (trams, but not only) that are worrying the traders quite a bit and that, in recent days, has seen the president of Ascom Confcommercio, Patrizio Bertin, point the finger at the lack of consultation with the economic categories by the Municipality.
“The concern is strong – concludes Capitanio, “wearing” the jacket of provincial vice president of Ascom – because it is giving the impression of a city impossible to reach and to get around. Unfortunately, on the altar of the tram, the commercial vocation of Padua is being sacrificed and this, for some colleagues, could be a blow difficult to absorb”.
