TOPTAZO, Italy — The big supermarket chains are not selling as many products as they once did.
The latest figures from the Association of Supermarkets and Markets (ASM) show that in the third quarter of 2016, there were only 4.2 million new items sold in the supermarket industry, down from 5.3 million in the same period a year earlier.
The number of products sold is down because of the slowdown in new business.
There are now just 2.5 million new products being sold each week in the supermarkets, down more than 60% from the same time last year.
But the biggest concern is that fewer people are buying more expensive items.
The ASM said it is “disappointing” that the industry is losing so many new product launches in the first half of this year compared with the previous quarter.
But it said that the biggest reason is the fact that the prices of many products have risen more rapidly than expected.
The average selling price of the top five supermarket brands in Italy in the quarter was 1.99 euros per kg.
That is more than double the average selling cost of the five other largest retailers, which were selling the same products at a rate of 1.65 euros per kilogram.
ASM’s chief executive, Fabrizio Fabbri, said the retail sector has been facing “a serious problem” with supply and demand.
He said that it is the responsibility of the big supermarket chain to “rebalance” the market in an attempt to increase sales.
The biggest supermarket chains have been struggling to attract customers and to keep up with demand, as people are spending more and more money on goods and services.
The retail sector accounts for less than 2% of Italian GDP, but accounts for more than 30% of consumer spending.
As a result, the supermarkets are losing money.
Fabb, who took over the role in November last year, said that retailers have had to cut costs to keep pace with the demand and that the lack of new products is also causing them to miss out on new revenue.
The main cause of the low sales figures is the “price shock” of the Brexit decision to leave the European Union.
“In the last three years, we have been forced to sell less and less products,” he said.
“This has caused us to lose revenue, which we will need to reinvest in the sector in the future.”
ASM president Giancarlo Mazzini said the slowdown has been “worsening.”
“In terms of the new products, we cannot say the same about the sales figures, as we do not have the same information on our own shelves,” he told reporters.
“The big supermarkets have to take responsibility for the lack and for the price surge that is going on and for it to have an impact on the retail industry as a whole.”
The big retailers’ profits have been hit in the last few years by the falling value of the euro and a fall in the value of its bonds, which are backed by the government.
Fobb said that, at the end of the month, there will be an annual review of the company’s accounts, to find out how the losses have been distributed between the three main retailers.
The group’s board of directors will discuss the findings in a meeting on Tuesday.
ASMM’s annual report for the three months ending September 2018 showed that sales of goods and consumer products fell by 8.6% in the period from a year ago.
That was due to an increase in the prices paid for certain products and the drop in the number of customers that can be reached from the large supermarkets.
The report also showed that a drop in orders for services from the big retailers had led to an average decline of 6.6%, compared to the same quarter last year when there was an average increase of 8.5%.
Sales of household goods, services and furniture also fell by 5.1% from a quarter earlier.
Mazzani said the situation has deteriorated since the Brexit vote.
“We have to think about the future,” he added.
“But the question is not whether the companies will be able to survive.
It is whether we will be the ones that continue to operate.”