This summer, many Romanians have replaced hotel rooms andchalets with tents, for a "crisis holiday" in the mountains or atthe seaside, and this has shown in sales of sports equipmentretailers, which announced increases of up to 20% for campingproducts and accessories.
At the beginning of this year, Ioana Oprica, 24, bought a tent,which she was planning on using in Spain, where, provided that youhave a good mattress, conditions in a camping pitch rival those ofa 2-star hotel in Romania.
Since then, she has used it three times, in Hungary, at theSziget Festival on the Obudai Island, and in Romania, at anotherfestival organised close to Bucharest.
"Before, we would look for lodging everywhere we went, and whennecessary, we would borrow the tent from friends. But we realisedit was much cheaper to buy one, especially since a night in acamping pitch does not cost more than 10 euros," says Oprica,adding that she bought the tent for 200 RON from a Corahypermarket.
After the sports equipment retailer Decathlon opened a 4,000square-metre multibrand store in the Militari area of Bucharest inApril this year, players on the same segment had to change theirstrategies and resort to more promotional offers.
"We have sold around 1,000 tents from May until now, a levelsimilar to that recorded last year, but we derived the biggestsales when we operated up to 25% discounts. When large storesentered the local market, our sales stagnated - with customersattracted by the lower prices charged by them," say representativesof Himalaya, one of the stores that specialise in sports equipment,which sells tents costing between 150 RON and 2,000 RON.
The large chains, Decathlon and Hervis, the latter boastingseven stores, in Cluj, Targu-Mures, Sibiu, Oradea and Bucharest,have the benefit of a varied supply and of lower prices, withpromotional offers generating increases from month to month, whilesmall stores, which do not have a similar visibility and asimilarly aggressive promotion, stand to suffer.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
