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Cologne (dpa) - The textile trade in German city centers is sounding the alarm.
The extension of the lockdown will drive numerous textile dealers, shoe stores and department stores to ruin, warned the textile (BTE), shoe (BDSE) and leather goods (BLE) trade associations.
The organizations warned that "a huge avalanche of half a billion unsold fashion items will pile up in the fashion stores until at least the end of January."
But that's only one side of the coin.
At the same time, the online trade reported new sales records in the important Christmas business.
According to a consumer study by the Federal Association of E-Commerce and Mail Order (bevh) Germany, online sales in the fourth quarter were almost 24 percent above the previous year's level.
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This means that the growth rate in e-commerce has more than doubled compared to the Christmas quarter of 2019.
According to bevh, online sales of groceries between October and December were more than 83 percent above the previous year's level.
In the drugstore sector, the increase was 46.7 percent.
But online clothing retail also grew by around 26 percent in the fourth quarter.
No doubt: Corona divides retail.
One of the winners is Germany's second-largest online shop Otto.de, which had already reported on record Christmas business at the beginning of the week.
Compared to Christmas business 2019, the number of orders has increased by almost 60 percent, the company reported.
Stationary fashion retail is one of the losers.
"For 2020 as a whole, we are assuming a historic drop in sales of around 30 percent," reported BTE General Manager Rolf Pangels on Wednesday.
Since the costs and especially the purchase of goods can hardly be adjusted due to the long lead times in the international supply chain, many businesses are now facing the ultimate end.
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The problem: The fashion retail in the city centers sits on huge mountains of goods, which continue to lose value with each closing day.
Because in February, winter goods will only be available for sale at large discounts, if at all.
"Goods will have to be sold below the purchase price", predicted BTE President Steffen Jost in an interview with the trade journal "Textilwirtschaft".
The fashion trade urgently needs money to pay for new goods for the spring and summer seasons.
The retailers in the city centers feel largely left alone by politics.
Hardly anything arrives from the full-bodied promised help.
"If politics does not change course as quickly as possible, thousands of businesses and thus tens of thousands of jobs will be lost in the stationary fashion trade alone!" Warned the industry spokesman Pangels.
The German Trade Association (HDE) finally demanded a clear timetable for reopening the shops.
"The closed trading companies now need clear statements about the conditions under which they can resume their operations and when," said the general manager of the HDE industry association, Stefan Genth.
Simply extending the lockdown and not presenting any prospects or plans for reopening stores is not enough.
Ultimately, the dealers would have to decide whether to order new goods.
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The mood in the fashion trade is now explosive, warned BTE President Jost in an interview with the “textile industry”.
So far, the trade has been "very elegant" in the representation of its interests.
But that could change quickly.
"The anger grows day by day."
If politicians do not show greater interest in trade, there will certainly soon be actions in Berlin, warned Jost and at the same time signaled what the protests could look like in Corona times: “Just think of the farmers who prepare their milk and butter unload any factory gates or government buildings. "
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210106-99-918568 / 3
HDE notification
Otto on business development in the Christmas quarter
BTE communication