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Japan’s supermarket sales down for 24th straight month in December; down for 11 straight years in 2007

Earlier today, the Japan Chain Stores Association announced that sales at the nation’s supermarkets had slid 1.8% in December, thus showing a year-on-year loss for the 24th consecutive month. Total sales at locations open for at least one year stood at 1.39 trillion yen in December.

Sales for all of 2007 dropped 1.4% to 13.98 trillion yen. That makes 2007 the 11th consecutive year of decline for supermarket sales, which ties the streak that Japan’s department stores have going.

The JCSA bases its survey on data from 8,806 supermarkets operated by 79 chains. Those 8,806 locations employed a total of 467,866 people, up 2.5% from a year ago, for an average of just over 53 employees per location.

Of those workers, 134,335 were listed as regular employees (正社員) and 333,531 as part-timers. That puts about 28.8% in full-time positions and about 71.3% in part-time jobs (someone out there must be working as both). A year ago, that percentage was 29.3% full-time employees and 70.7% part-timers, so we’ve seen a slight uptick in the number and proportion of part-time supermarket workers in the past year.

In December 2004 (the earliest year from which data was available from JCSA), we found 32.2% of supermarket employees in full-time positions and 67.8% working part-time. There thus has been a slight trend shifting toward more part-time employees in the supermarket industry over the past four years.

Let’s go back to the 2007 numbers, and look at employment type by gender:

Full-time

• Male: 69.08%
• Female: 30.92%

Part-time

• Male: 9.44%
• Female: 90.56%

It sure looks like men are having a hard time getting part-time jobs at supermarkets in Japan! In all seriousness, we’re not going to draw conclusions on these figures since that’s what the discussion area below is for. In its report, the JCSA notes three straight months of declining income and the Nikkei closing lower than it opened in 2007 (for the first time in five years) as factors contributing to the current operational environment.

And yes, just like the whiners at the Japan Department Stores Association, the JCSA blamed lackluster sales in part on the unseasonably warm weather. Hey, I know weather can effect sales. Supermarket sales, however, have been down for 24 months in a row, and 11 years when total sales for the year are added up. And department stores - hell, they’ve also been experiencing lower sales for 11 straight years. At some point, someone has to stop pointing at the sky and saying, “Why are you doing this to me?” I mean, before they lock that guy up.

At any rate, here’s what we’ve all been waiting for. Broken down by category, December 2007 supermarket sales looked like this:

• Food: +0.2%, 59.2% of total revenue
• Household Products: -4.6%, 21.5% of total revenue
• Clothing: -6.7%, 12.5% of total revenue
• Miscellaneous Items: -0.8%, 6.4% of total revenue
• Services: -6.8%, 0.4% of total revenue

Really, you just want to whisper into someone’s ear: “Look! Sales in core operations were up! They were for several months in 2007!”

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