Basso Sarca Shops Delay End-of-Season Sales Until August 1

Another year, it’s common to walk through the city streets and encounter tourists hurriedly searching for discounts in shops. Nothing unusual, however, if the signs indicating sales haven’t yet appeared in the shop windows: indeed, this year, in the stores of Basso Sarca, the end-of-season sales will start approximately two weeks later than in the rest of the Province of Trento. The sales period will begin on August 1st instead of July 15th, as has happened elsewhere, and will end on September 15th.

“This was a decision made last October, during the usual assembly of associates,” explains Franco Gamba, president of the Unione commercio e Turismo, “which, as indicated by a survey conducted by the Union, responds to the needs of operators in our area.” For several years now, merchants in Basso Sarca have taken advantage of the possibility granted by regulations to postpone their summer sales by fifteen days, thus making the most of the characteristics of Garda tourism.”

The impact of these choices on shops and future proposals

“For our colleagues in Rovereto and Trento,” Gamba explains, “August is typically a slow period for business, while for us, it culminates the tourist season. Precisely when they close their shops and go on vacation, we start working more intensively. It’s almost useless to explain, therefore, why this year again, retailers have decided to make this choice: to maximize the most profitable period of the year for sales.”

However, this opportunity cannot be extended to the winter sales, which causes some discontent among the commercial operators. “Ideally,” continues Gamba, “we would like to postpone the start of those sales by a couple of weeks as well: instead of starting in early January, which has the obvious negative repercussions on Christmas sales, they could begin halfway through the same month, offering clear advantages for our sector.”