With few days to usher into the Christmas festive, traders at the Effia Market in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality (EKMA) have lamented on the low patronage of their goods as the season unfolds.
Most of the traders stocked their stores with the hope of making good sales before, during and after Christmas.
In most Ghanaian homes, foodstuffs and assorted drinks are provided by the family for visitors who may visit them during the festive holidays.
Retail and wholesale shop owners revealed to Spice News Team how low sales have been recorded ahead of the festive season.
Some of them asserted that the advent of the covid-19 has affected almost every aspect of the economy adding, “people losing their jobs in the midst of the pandemic has led to economic hardship.”
In comparing the year under review to the previous year, some of them said, last year was better than this year.
They said, “there is no money in the system thus deterring people from shopping for Christmas.”
A shop attendant revealed that she was able to sell between seven thousand cedis (GHc 7,000) to ten thousand cedis (GHc 10,000) in the previous years but the situation has been different this year as sales have taken a nosedive.
Shop owners were, however, optimistic that there could be a turn of events in the coming year where good sales would be made.
Story: Benedicta Ackney
