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Retailers delighted over Father's Day shopping recovery

Positive retail sales in advance of today's Father's Day have confirmed predictions of a steady recovery in consumer spending during the post-SARS period, industry figures said yesterday.

"Many female customers have come to shop for their boyfriends and fathers over last three weeks and have boosted sales," said Shauna Lee (李香萩), an assistant manager at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (新光三越) in Taipei.

Lee said customers are more willing to spend compared to a month ago. The nation's two largest retailers, Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) and Shin Kong have both seen sales grow by 10 percent over the last three weeks from a year ago.

Shin Kong, which runs 10 stores in Taiwan, created NT$2.6 billion in sales, a 12 percent increase between July 18 and Wednesday from a year ago, Lee said.

"We are glad to see the results ... it may show the retail industry that it has survived the SARS impact," she said.

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs' latest commercial activity report unveiled last month, SARS severely impacted domestic business.

Department stores were hard hit, with the sector reporting a 24 percent sales decrease to NT$10.1 billions in May over the same period last year, the report said.

Pacific Sogo was also delighted to hear the good news.

"Compared to the same period last year, we have seen a 12 percent sales increase," said Sogo vice president Lee Kuang-rong (李光榮).

The SARS epidemic took the wind out of the sails of Sogo's Mother's Day plan. While the retail giant originally expected to make around NT$50 million in sales each day in the run up to Mother's Day, Sogo could barely hit a daily figure of NT$10 million.

In an effort to cover the loss, Sogo is hoping to turn a buck from Father's Day.

"We are aiming to make more than NT$100 million in sales," Lee said.

In addition to department stores, hypermarkets are also banking on people's goodwill.

A wide selection of products such as shavers, massage chairs and men's accessories are on the top of this week's shopping list.

Among them, shavers are the hottest items.

"We generated sales of around NT$80 million in shavers last year and are looking to have NT$100 million this year," said Fiona Wang (王彤芳), marketing manager at RT-Mart (大潤發), a French-Taiwanese hypermarket joint venture.

Shaver sales peak in the run up to Father's Day, with nearly 70 percent of shavers sold annually in Taiwan retailed during this period, according to Lo Chi-shih (羅季仕), manager of Philips Electronics Industries Taiwan.

Meanwhile, a Academia Sinica economist said yesterday that rising consumer spending goes hand in hand with the economic situation.

"The economic outlook for the rest of the year is optimistic," said Wu Chung-shu (吳中書), a research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Economics.

"It's is hard to estimate, however, if there will be a strong rebound," he added.
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