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Swedes flock to stores to buy summer outfits

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Swedes flock to stores to buy summer outfits
Clothes and shoe sales went up in June. Photo: Pontus Lundahl/SCANPIX

After a slow start to the year, shoppers are finally hitting the stores again, according to fresh figures by the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel).

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Clothes sales went up by 6.7 percent in June, compared to the same month last year, new figures by the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel) revealed on Friday.

Meanwhile, shoe sales leaped by a whopping 9.6 percent.

“It's very pleasing indeed. It's a really good rise and you should at the same time be aware that May was terrible; the industry needed a comeback, or else things would have been looking pretty dark,” Mikael Sandström, head of the Swedish Trade Federation's fashion industry branch, told The Local on Friday.

Despite the Nordic country being known for its trendy shops and brands, boasting companies such as Acne, Cheap Monday and Filippa K, 2015 has so far been a bleak year for Swedish retail.

Since January, total sales have climbed by no more than 0.4 percent.

“On the whole 2015 hasn't been particularly good – at the start of the year the trend was negative and then we managed to turn it around ever so slightly in May,” said Sandström.

“But at some point everyone needs new clothes. The reason June was so good is that there was a pent-up demand for summer clothes and shoes because people had been buying so little earlier in the year,” he added.

A disappointingly cold spring – including the wettest month of May on record – is part of the reason why Swedes did not head to the shops earlier in the year to pick up their summer outfits. But only part, according to Sandström, who says there are no silver bullets.

“Of course if the weather had been nicer in May we would probably have sold more, but that's just one of many variables. If it was as simple as just one reason and not several factors a lot more people would be earning a lot more money,” he said.

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