Drop In T.V. Sales, Refrigerators Up

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30947, 31 December 1965, Page 17

Drop In T.V. Sales, Refrigerators Up

Sales in refrigerators and small electrical goods this Christmas had more than offset the drop in television sales, said the manager of Beath and Company (Mr C. D. Ogilvie).

Latest N.Z.B.C. figures, said Mr Ogilvie, showed that the drop in TV set sales in the Christchurch area for November, compared with October, was 8.6 per cent. But this, he said, was fortunately not nearly as severe as the TV sales drops elsewhere in New Zealand.

“The drop in Christchurch sales of TV sets was about one-third of the New Zealand average," said Mr Ogilvie. Quoting from N.Z.B.C. figures. Mr Ogilvie said that the decrease in set sales in the Wellington area was 59.2 per cent for last month, compared with October. In Auckland the drop was 45.2 per cent, and in Dunedin 39.4 per cent. The Christchurch TV set sales drop for November was only 8.6 per cent, compared with the New Zealand average of 31.7 per cent. Mr Ogilvie quoted the sales figures of TV sets in New Zealand in October, at 10,811, compared with 7380 for November,

This’ represented a decrease in sales of 3431 sets. Christmas Sales

The early opening of the new Lichfield street parking station, said Mr Ogilvie, had assisted Christmas sales.

People this year, he said, had bought big and well for cash. Christmas presents for wives, husbands or girl friends had been paid for in cash. The gifts had bfeen generous and expensive. More refrigerators were sold this Christmas than last year, he said. This could be attributed to persons who had paid off their television sets and who were now looking at other “white-ware” articles again.

Several large city stores reported record sales for the Christmas week period, ending on Christmas Eve. This applied to a group of Cashel street stores, and others in the city area. Beath and Company, said Mr Ogilvie, was 22J per cent up for the week, compared with Christmas week last year. This year there were five shopping days in Christmas week, and the store stayed open till 9.30 p.m. instead of the usual 9 p.m. Last year, there were four shopping days in Christmas week.

The assistant merchandising manager of D.1.C., Ltd. (Mr R. Munro), said that Christmas sales were a record or “so dose to it, that it didn’t matter.”

Many visitors, he said, were shopping this week. “I was rather surprised on Wednesday morning to find the shop so busy,” he said. “There seems to be a lot of visitors in town.” Mr Munro said that the normal number of gifts were being exchanged at the D.I.C. The manager of J. Ballantyne and Company, Ltd. (Mr R. F. Ballantyne), said that early on Wednesday morning there were many people shopping, many of them visitors.

The cool weather, he said, brought them in from beaches and resorts to shop. From previous experience, he said, visitors to the city bought well.