Are we meant to understand that nobody buys on line in the rest of Europe?
In the newspapers today:
Taking questions from the floor, Dr Muscat pondered on why retail trade was on the decrease when the economy was growing and employment was increasing.
He pinned this down to the €200 million spent last year on online trade, adding that local businesses ought to focus their efforts on giving a consumer-centric service, especially after sales.
Let’s get the verb tense out of the way first. That sentence should read: Dr Muscat …why retail trade IS decreasing when the economy IS growing and employment IS increasing.
The use of the past tense is wrong because all of these things are happening in the present. The prime minister WAS talking but the things he WAS talking about ARE happening right now. Therefore you use the past tense for what the prime minister did yesterday (he talked) but the present tense for what he talked about, which is happening now and not in the past.
Anybody who reads that newspaper report without the contextual knowledge will obviously assume that the prime minister was talking about some past point in Malta’s history when retail trade was decreasing while the economy and jobs were growing, and not about the present.
Now to the facts of the matter. Retail sales are on the rise in much of Europe, recovering fairly well after the dreadful slowdown and years of financial problems and unemployment. But in Malta, retail sales are shrinking fast. As the prime minister said, this is not a matter of people not having money. Last year, Maltese people spent €200 million on internet purchases.
But people throughout the rest of Europe also have access to internet purchases – more so than in Malta, because there are things delivered in larger countries which are not delivered to Malta unless you use an ancillary service to send it on, which increases costs – and yet retail in many of those countries has started to become buoyant again.
So clearly, the issue isn’t so much the existence of online shopping as the state of Maltese shops. There is simply no variety and year on year, the number of shops increases but they are all selling the same things in the same way. This makes for a dispiriting and demoralising shopping experience and drives people to the internet.
And of course, it’s a chicken-and-egg situation and a vicious cycle. As shops experience plummeting demand they take even less risk with varying their stock and don’t invest in making their shops more attractive. So shoppers show even less interest in them and turn even further towards online browsing and shopping.
The decor and ‘display psychology’ of many Maltese shops is beyond appalling – straight out of the 1970s. Yet shops in the more developed towns and cities of Europe, to which many Maltese are now exposed through travel, have evolved way beyond that into something which people enjoying visiting even if only for the sensory experience of browsing. Once you have drawn people in for that sensory experience, this might translate into sales if not at that point then in a few days or weeks or even months.
Too many Maltese shops are downright ugly. You could argue that they reflect Maltese sensibilities and so are perfectly tailored to the market. But clearly, they are not. People don’t like them. They don’t visit them unless there is a very specific draw, like cost-conscious clothes that are well made and stylish. They don’t linger though – they are in and out as fast as they can.
29 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
If we were to know how much money was spent on online shopping in 2012, we would be able to make a more efficient comparison.
Without a shadow of a doubt, an impeccable, systematic, customer-centric after sales service is the name of the game
So much more than that.
With all due respect, Daphne, Dr. Muscat is correct in saying that employment WAS increasing.
That’s because it happened under the last Nationalist government.
Employment is only artificially increasing under this one thanks to many Taghna Lkollers being placed on the public payroll.
Every idiot tries to open shop and be a ‘businessman’, whilst the week before he/she was doing 8 hour shifts as a factory operator.
If there ever was a Guinness world record for social climbing and gold diggers, Malta must be up there in the top three. Probably somewhere with the Russians.
And rarely do I find any one of these new shops focussed on the activity.
It’s more about some dare. There’s a particular side street in Hamrun, the rat route out of Qormi, loaded with ’boutiques’.
The Chesiennes pitted against each other.
Reminds me when everyone in Asterix’s village opened a shop selling antique swords or fresh fish to the new patrician neighbours.
Clothes in Malta are relatively expensive compared to abroad. Just last year I bought a jacket from a famous mid-range store in Sliema, only to find the exact same item for cheaper in London. Not by much, but still. And this is London; one of the most expensive cities in the world.
As for the aesthetics of establishments, there has been significant improvement in the past decade or so. There’s a lot of leather and wood and metals and soft lighting, and everything seems to have been designed by a pro.
I’m talking of course about the big brand shops in Sliema and Valletta. There are loads of hideous places, clearly run by persons with the standard “uwijja mhux xorta” mentality.
You want to talk grammar? “….pondered on…”. Huh?
If we’re talking grammar, how about Leo ‘Herr’ Brincat’s tweet about the PM’s “sombre” assessment of the EU?
One thing that perfectly illustrates the above is the poor Christmas decorations in our shops. They don’t even make an effort for Christmas. They spend a few euros at tal-Lira u ejja ha immorru. No creativity at all.
Malta is as expensive as every other European country. However businesses can still afford to pay half the salaries as what our European counterparts earn mainly due to the following reasons:
1) Their business is of a pure operational nature and so can afford relatively low skilled workers.
2) The availability of third country nationals who are ready to work at lower salaries.
3) The lack of readiness of most Maltese workers to live abroad and compete for jobs in other countries.
Therefore Malta has not yet integrated in the EU job market and so most Maltese workers, including most self employed workers, cannot afford purchasing expensive goods.
I call it two decades of the “kompetittività” mantra, which is just a euphemism for keeping salaries low.
Then they give us some myth about how our GDP (“gid” in prose) has gone up so we’re all happier. No we’re not.
I agree that the mantra resulted or was a mask for keeping salaries low. However, that meaning is only assumed in countries like Malta where businesses rarely have any sense about how to differentiate themselves on the basis of value other than price.
Muscat is facing a serious problem. Actually, scratch that. Malta is facing a serious problem. Muscat doesn’t really care. Instead of reinventing retail, the industry will bleed out naturally. Muscat will either let it bleed or fix it the usual labour way – protectionism.
However, and this is where I claim that Muscat has learnt nothing from any of the works he has cited in the doctoral thesis, protectionism leads to gross inefficiencies, unemployment, and a general drop in the standard of living.
The fall in employment will be significantly worse relative to when Mintoff was in power. This time there are immigrants willing to settle for below average wages. So Maltese unemployed will stay at home and rest on welfare.
Those who “switched” and voted Labour didn’t realise that this was coming.
The signs were given long ago.
Probably to justify what’s on the cards.
Protectionism will somehow be with us again.
Which is how chains operate worldwide. Ever seen Wal-Mart employees picketing stores?
There’s this overdrive to buy out each other at the moment.
That brings another phenomenon, I heard Zurrieq’s in the process of losing all its corner stores. Chains just transfer staff or lay off.
Thanks to the faculty for the built environment and naff methodic cut and paste planning, everywhere’s good to go.
Hands off ‘architecture’ and philistine rule making will destroy us. Illegalities and abuse taken to social challenge.
So the Maltese government runs the country like a chain: keep ’em busy, keep ’em poor, and keep ’em quiet. I knew it. We’re Mexicans in our own country, unless we’re Sandro Chetcuti, lawyers or ic-Caqnu. All hail l-ghaqal tal-gvern.
Which is what happens when retailers form a lobby to safeguard their individual interests, leaving the shopper out of the equation.
Pity really, concentrating on a particular type of experience is a tried and tested way of regenerating places.
As things stand, with retailers opting for maximum traffic catchment, their problems will only increase.
What really gets to me is how the shops which value my interest are never more than three per location, the ones worth a visit, always out of curiosity, more likely isolated.
It’s clear there’s a dominant group who can’t deal with the smaller ones. Every civilised place reserves spaces for every different market. And no grumbling by those who think they can shove their stuff down our throats should prevent this from happening.
London has Portobello, Milan the Navigli, Paris every street down from the Pompidour.
Perhaps Muscat could analyse why the Maltese don’t read, won’t buy any particular object for their home unless they saw it on TV, are perenially overweight and think music is either the full bass or baroque.
This perfidous trend to move out to the non-place per excellence, the bypass Megastore, is the real reason. And not, as he snidely tries to imply, something up to shop owners leaving us passive consumers.
Shops then, only reflect our poverty in spirit. The fact he feels the need to pre-empt any real discussion, protect his core lobby, is telling.
The agenda here is to justify the building spree as rent laws remain the perfect excuse not to compete, the real business being eventual compensation to move out.
With retail, the latter affects others not just on price, but prevents any mix to form and entice a market.
Truly moving out into the American luxurious living condo with mall nearby as cores deteriorate even further.
As for Yep’s comment to shop design, that’s your typical Maltese trait, if we have to do things up, we just have to redesign the wheel.
Call it manic depression interrupted with bouts of compulsive behaviour.
Even sale prices are more expensive here in Malta.
All last years stock brought out smelling of mold.
These retailers are looking for protectionism,an old MLP mentality.
Its all over folks.
We are in the EU remember?
There’s no smoke without a fire. Crack down in internet shopping next. Another electoral promise reportedly made behind closed doors.
Dr Muscat has the solution to an improved shopping experience. Move the Monti to Ordnance street and upgrade the stalls.
There are several ‘externally’ induced factors which have a direct bearing on local sales. The ECO TAX (labelled contribution) is one of them. It is exorbitant. A basic computer tablet that should retail at a round €60 has to sell at €99+. Why? Because the ECO TAX at €38 (VAT included on it) has to be added on to the end user price. Invariably tablets online sell at much lower and obviously more competitive prices. This is across the board with white goods such as TVs, Computers, Laptops, Fridges, batteries and anything imaginable ending. All up much more expensive than on the internet. That is why people resort to the internet. To make matters worst the freight costs to Malta are exorbitant. I am referring here to the shipping agents. Consider this. The cost of getting a 20′ container ‘to door’ from our ports costs practically the same as the cost of the whole trip from say Hong Kong. Daylight robbery. To cap it all if individuals take a truck to Sicily, load this with goods and return on the Ferry they have no inspections, no bonding fees and no charges. Getting it through the Freeport increases your costs by some 30% because of customs inspections, documentation etc. All of which is non existent coming off a Ferry and the added costs end up reflected in a higher price. I firmly believe that today retailers do not make high margins for the same reason that they have to compete with the internet – to say the least. But these ‘induced’ added costs cannot be done away with and invariably products end up more expensive. This is just one aspect, that is looking at the pricing effect. Other contributors have raised equally valid issues for the decline.
Eco taxes exist in other European countries, where retailers have an additional factor to worry about: customers can just cross the border and do their shopping elsewhere.
It seems to me that Maltese retailers got caught up in the government’s propaganda and – even worse – in the national narrative of Malta as a massive shopping mall. The Prime Minister says he wants to turn Malta into a Dubai or Singapore in the Med. This is exactly what he had in mind.
If you retailers are doing badly, it’s because the Maltese were raised to buy the sort of stuff that you find in shopping malls, and a fortiori, on the internet. Get your customers to hanker after the custom-built and the unique, convert your business accordingly, and you will thrive.
I am glad that on this issue at least, my aims and yours converge beautifully.
Jekk wiehed ihares lejn l-istatistika tal-NSO jara li l-online shopping huwa ‘factored’ ukoll, igifieri din hija biss skuza.
Soon Joseph will solve this, with China’s help.
He will stop internet money transfers or tax these heavily in the name of protectionism.
Somebody wants to get a grip of this shit about all these bloody shops (and I mean all over the island) that claim 50 percent off of this, 75 percent off of that) that have been in shop windows for years and not just Valletta. EU Laws my arse
Sorry, I forgot the window stickers as well. SALE SALE SALE. Xandir Malta ads are hard to forget.
Actually recently I found a camera in a Maltese shop at a cheaper price than on the Internet.
At least one small retailer is setting good prices.
This is the only shop I know with such good prices.
Some shops here bother you as soon as you go in. The salesgirl starts pestering you, without letting you even look at what’s on sale.
In some larger shops, there is a big counter and you can’t even look at the items behind the counter because they are far away and you can’t go there, imagine someone with vision problems.
In simple terms, how can one ever entrust the management of a state (from a strictly managerial viewpoint) to a man whose CV is almost empty?
a) a Ph.D in public policy; b) 3-odd years managing an online newspaper (really badly); c) a 5-year European parliament vacation.
And the guy is at the helm of an EU member state.