Hard times for fashion retailers in Bucharest

All shop windows along the streets boast “Final sales 70 percent” announcements, although the sharp cuts in prices do not seem to be attracting many customers. Most store managers on the two streets I visited say that, unlike last year, sales plunged by more than 50 percent. There were no clients in the stores on Calea Victoriei. Of the few stores that have remained open, only some agreed to comment on the summer season situation.

At Man&Manetti, a men’s clothing retailer, and Cerutti, there was not a single shopper. Promotions range between 30 and 70 percent, and yet, sales are below those registered last year. The saleswoman told me that Madonna’s presence in Bucharest for her “Sticky and Sweet” tour concert contributed to this season’s sales. “We had one client who came specially to buy an entire outfit for Madonna’s concert,” she explained.

Stefanel is offering discounts of up to 60 percent, but their employees are more interested in arranging the new Autumn-Winter collection on the store’s shelves. Musette offers lower discounts, of 20-50 percent. The saleswoman was kind enough to show me the records according to which the summer promotion period began on 19 June and is due to end on 15 September. She even explained to me that sales between June and August were “about” the same as last year, although August registered a slight drop. I leave Calea Victoriei to head for Calea Moşilor. The first stop is a Lotto store, brand controlled locally by the Extenso company, one of the top ten clothing retailers in terms of net sales. Discounts for summer collections range from 30 to 60 percent. Bogdan Brolan, the store’s Manager tells me that “sales fell 30-40 percent compared to the summer of 2008. If last year at this time we sold 200-250 products every month, this year we sold only 100-150 products in one month.” The new line for children is already on promotion, because “people are used to seeing discounts. If there are no sale posters, they do not even come in,” Brolan said.

A few hundreds meters from the Lotto store, there is another sports clothing store - Tempt Sport. The store’s owner said that “people are not buying anymore. We have declines in excess of 50 percent in this summer’s sales. We said we would stay until spring and, if things continue like this, we will change our profile, to sell foodstuffs. They will have to buy food.”

The window of the Stone Creek store is filled with red and white posters: “Store closure! Everything goes!” According to the store’s head, Andreea Răducanu, they were told in July that the rent was going to be raised, and the owners have decided to close down this unit. The discounts are up to 85 percent. Sales are down 60 percent compared to the summer of 2008. And there are no customers.