Retailers hopeful of good sales in 2013

A brief survey by the Mmegi Business showed that the year 2012 was generally perceived to be a bad one by many supermarket retailers in terms of sales mainly due to the ever-rising inflation coupled with the lack of salary increase to both the civil servants and the private sector.

"Last year beginning March, sales became static until late October. The decline in sales was mainly because the country was still recovering from a strike the previous year and some people lost their jobs leading to loss of customers. The government also did not hike salaries for civil servants for a number of years despite rising inflation. This led to a decline in consumer confidence," said Meriting Spar manager Andrew Tlhowe, without readily providing statistics to substantiate his claims.