Japan supermarket sales up 0.6% in November - though down 2.8% when all shops counted

December 22, 2008
By Ken Worsley

While the yen’s recent strength against the dollar has been a cause for worry amongst Japan’s exporting industries, a few of the nation’s supermarkets have turned the situation to their advantage. Aeon, Japan’s largest retailer, has been holding “Strong Yen Sales” with markdowns on imported wines, meat and fish.

Has this marketing strategy been successful? It’s difficult to gauge its direct impact on supermarket sales, but according to the Japan Chain Store Association, supermarket sales in Japan rose 0.6% in November, showing their first rise since this July - and only the third rise in the past 35 months.

While headlines announced a rise in supermarket sales for November, it’s worth noting that these are the adjusted figures, and do not include supermarkets opened within the past 12 months. When those shops are included, we see a 2.8% fall against figures from a year ago - and the same was true in both July and February, the other two months this year in which a “rise” in supermarket sales was reported.

Here is a breakdown of October’s adjusted figures (not including stores opened within the past twelve months):

Food: +2.9%, 60.6% of total revenue
Household Products: -1.8%, 20.4% of total revenue
Clothing: -6.3%, 12.7% of total revenue
Miscellaneous Items: +2.3%, 6.0% of total revenue
Services: +6.4%, 0.4% of total revenue

What happens when shops opened within the past 12 months are included? Food sales were down 1.0%, household products down 3.6%, clothing down 10.8%, miscellaneous down 3.1%, and services were up 5.2%.

The number of shops open in November stood at 8,791, up one from a year ago. The number of employees at supermarkets nationwide was at 439,120 in November, down 2.6% from a year ago. Sales per square meter were down 2.2%.

Filed Under Economic Reports, Retail, Supermarkets