Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on card spending rising, the impact of concerts, Christchurch's new stadium

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Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on card spending rising, the impact of concerts, Christchurch's new stadium · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's twenty past five. New numbers show kiwis are spending
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: more but buying less. Total retails spend reach three point
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: eight billion dollars in May, so that was up one
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: point two percent is the same time last year. It's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a bounce back from the zero point one percent drop
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: in April. But we're not making big purchases. Instead, we're
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: spending more on food. Carolyn Young, Retail New Zealand Chief
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: executive joins me. Now, good morning, mariena France Chester. Why
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: has our appetite to spend turned around this month?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Look, I think people are in that we had that
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: panic sort of March and April over the Middle East crisis,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: and I think things have settled down now and people
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: are feeling a bit more relaxed about where things are.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: We're not necessarily feeling great about them, but we understand
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: where the flowers and that uncertainty has dissipated as we
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: know that it's going to be something for the long haul.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: We're not necessarily in control. We're not going to run
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: out of fuel. We've just got to manage inflation as
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: we work our way through. So people are more inclined
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: to go out for dinner and buy a little bit
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: more at the surfermarket rather than necessarily buy other purchases.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Do you see this as a long term recurry or
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: is it just a little small glimmer of hope.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: We hope it is a glimmer of hope. That's always
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a key thing. The thing that we know is that
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: at least a rise is keeping up with inflation and
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: we're not declining. So that's something to be pleased about.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: You know, it's not the only thing to be pleased about,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: but that's something to be pleased about. We know that
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: in some areas the country, the farming sector is holding up.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: For those areas you think about Canterbury and Wacuto. We
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: know there's a Fonterra payout coming out this month and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: so we might have started to see some farmers spending
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: a little bit early. So that's a good sign as
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: well for more to come.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: When it says that we're buying more food, are we
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: talking about the supermarket, eating out or takeaways? And is
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: it that we're buying more food Carol, and or that
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the food prices are still quite high?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Everything except keep you said, so we're spending a little
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: bit more at the soapermarket. In some instances, people are
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: out buying a bit more at hospitality than they had
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: been doing. Might be reverting back to more normal levels,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and you know, it could be a little bit of
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: takeaways as well. But we do know the prices have
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: gone up so that you're not necessarily getting any more.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: You're just keeping up with inflation.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, It's good to see another event making an impact.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Another good reason. I'm talking about the six sixty concert
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: in christ I mean, it's another good reason we should
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: be filling our stadiums with events, isn't it exactly?
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: You know, events really drive activity in terms of retail
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: and hospitality. It really gets cities moving. People come in
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: in a great mood, they've gone out to a fantastic
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: keepy concert, and we saw that we can an uplift
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: of ten point six percent in the christ Such economy.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: That's that's really phenomenal for that economy, right, And what
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: we want to see is more events across cities throughout
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the year, not just once or us over summer or
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: once every couple of years. You know, those events really
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: draw people and we know that you know, there's some
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: iconic things that happen around the country on a regular basis,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and we just need to see more.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, thanks so much for your time this morning, Carolyn.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:16
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• 3:20
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