Sellers of this commodity went through a golden year: they were not prepared for such an influx of buyers

The rise of bicycles, scooters, exercise machines and other sports and leisure-related items is reflected in Statistics Lithuania’s data on last year’s retail turnover.

Alina Ramaškevičienė, Chief Specialist of the Department’s Short-Term Trade Statistics Division, notes that last year, compared to the previous year, the demand for sports and leisure goods increased like never before.

According to A. Ramaškevičienė, it mostly jumped during the first quarantine in the spring, but continued later.

“People who started working or studying from home bought not only information and communication technology equipment during the first quarantine, but also sports items at home. When sports clubs closed, people looked for other physical activities and swept everything that could be used for sport on its own ”, says the statistician.

As a result, according to statistics, the turnover of goods for sports and leisure increased by 9.4% last year, and compared to November of the previous year with November 2019, up to 14.6%.

During and after the quarantine, strong growth in demand for bicycles and scooters saved some entrepreneurs from bankruptcy. But they point out that the increase in demand was influenced not only by COVID-19 but also by the possibility of receiving state compensation for the destroyed polluting vehicle.

Tomas Gluoksnis, the owner of Ultrabike, one of the largest bicycle shops in the Baltic countries, is not hiding: 2020 was a special year for his business.

“The trade in bicycles and their accessories has doubled,” says T. Gluoksnis. “I haven’t seen that many cyclists this time of year, and our bike service teachers work at their usual pace.”

It is true that the increase in sales forced us to solve another unforeseen problem: the sharp increase in demand interrupted the supply of bicycles, their spare parts and accessories.

“The demand for bicycles grew worldwide during the pandemic, so the supply was interrupted not only in Lithuania,” says the director of the company. “We anticipate that these issues will be resolved in July of this year at best.”

According to T. Gluoksnis, the main reason for such a boom in bicycle sales is COVID-19. Subsequent trips refuse to force people to massively sit on bicycles.

But several buyers also came to his store to take advantage of compensation for the purchase of bicycles after getting rid of a polluting car.

“We had about 10% of those buyers, but I heard from my colleagues that a lot of Lithuanians really took the opportunity to change old polluting cars into electric bicycles or scooters,” said T. Gluoksnis.

He is also not surprised by the words that it is practically impossible to buy any material for sports at home, because the bicycle exercise machines that he has in his store have long been out of stock.

And not only bicycles, scooters, skateboards and skates, but also the director of the winter sports equipment store Terrasport Viktoras Zaubidov admits that bicycle buyers saved his business last summer. .

According to the interviewee, during the first quarantine, the number of buyers in the online store increased, and after that, the buyers also began to sweep bicycles in the physical store. “We have been working for dozens of years and last summer was the absolute best warm season,” says the businessman.

It is true that interrupted supply also has a negative impact on your business. “The demand is tremendously high, we were not prepared for that,” admits V. Zaubidov. – Predicting something is still difficult, because in addition to the fact that production is not keeping up with demand, the pandemic has increased transportation costs from China between 6 and 7 times. This is likely to increase retail prices this year as well.

The representative of the Department of Statistics A. Ramaškevičienė also pointed out that during the first quarantine and already after the beginning of the second, people bought more household appliances and furniture.
The specialist believes that this is also due to the fact that people took longer to spend at home and it was necessary for them to improve their life.

Therefore, the data available to the Department of Statistics shows that people spent more money on furniture, appliances and audiovisual equipment last year. The turnover of these goods in November, compared to the same month of 2019, increased by 16.1% and in the year it increased by 6.3%.

However, last year, sales of clothing and footwear fell sharply due to the quarantine and related restrictions. Lithuanians who had to refuse to stay home and give up the Christmas holidays did not spend on these products and their retail turnover fell by 11% last year.

Last November, compared to the same month of 2019, sales of textiles, clothing and footwear fell 19.3 percent, and compared to October of the same year, 17.9 percent.

But catering companies saw an even bigger decline last year. Its turnover in November of last year, compared to the same month last year, was reduced by almost half: 47.3 percent, and compared to October, 38.2 percent.
Cafes, restaurants and other catering establishments began to plunge into the deep well during the first wave of the pandemic. In April, the billing of catering establishments reached historical lows (-68.3%).