(By Zhang Lulu, Guo Na) Every May Day holiday is the peak season of consumption. Merchants put tempting goods on display and plan the most preferential sales promotion which enables citizens to shop to the fullest while enjoying the unlimited spring. According to monitoring statistics from the Municipal Bureau of Commerce on five large and medium-sized shopping malls (supermarkets) and five catering enterprises,the total sales from April 29 to May 1st reached 88.6466 million,an increase of 4.32 percent compared with the same period of last year.
In order to attract more clients, every merchant had been taking various actions simultaneously and stocking up elaborately by May Day. The passenger flow volume came up to approximately 30% more than usual during the May Day holiday. Food, clothing, footwear, gold and silver jewelry, cosmetics, digital appliances and other commodities are still selling well. Apparel products such as clothing, shoes and hats have maintained a good momentum of selling growth, with their sales accounting for about half of total sales. The sales during the holiday increased by 13% than usual, among which women's wear mounted by 9%, sports goods soared by 13.5%, and footwear increased by 5%. Sales of spring-themed products, snack foods, and cooking products increased significantly. Food sales were up by more than 15% year-on-year, among which fruits and vegetables, grain, oils, snack foods, and table foods were favored. In account of the temperature rise during this year’s May Day holiday, residents have stepped out of their homes one after another to have an outgoing and to enjoy outdoor activities, leading to a great growth of the passenger flow volume of tourist attractions in most counties and districts of our city. Under the guidance of the concept “going to the nature and experiencing leisure time in a green and health way”,the agritainment catering,with its distinctive features,becomes popular and thriving. Meanwhile,the May Day holiday also enjoys the wedding boom. Tourism and wedding consumption have driven the sales of tourism consuming goods and wedding supplies, such as tobacco and wine, beverage, food, fruits, gold and silver jewelry, clothing shoes and hats, etc., as well as the growth of catering industry. During the May Day this year, the catering industry in our city was obviously heating up, and the attendance rate was more than 30% higher than usual.
Although the weather was not cooperating in some part of holiday, it didn’t stop people going out to eat and enjoy the delicious food. In view of the characteristics of the gathering of wedding banquets and increasing tourist flow in holiday, the catering industry in our city actively planned the festival market, brought forth the new through the old and formed a local style while meeting the needs of consumption. Therefore, the consumption of food and beverage was booming during the May Day holiday. Large and medium-sized hotels were mainly engaged in wedding banquets in which the consumption level of the wedding package tables increased by 30%, with the table number 10% higher than that of last year. This year, there were more foreign tourists in the May Day holiday. At the same time, family gatherings and agritainment catering were in great demand while the public consumption on food and beverage increased significantly, up by more than 20% from the same period last year. Some catering enterprises cancelled the minimum consumption and some enterprises reduced the price of food products. In order to meet the demand of online shopping, many medium and high grade catering enterprises actively participated in the online sales like Meituan, offering diverse ways to enrich the festival catering consumption. According to the monitoring data of five catering enterprises in our city, the total turnover of "May Day" three-day holiday amounted to 675,200 yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 3.44%.