The low quantities of snow received so far this winter are being felt in sporting goods stores which risk ending the season with excess inventory.
This is particularly the case for Echo sports in Quebec, where cross-country skis are not very popular this year.
“It’s quite low,” says the owner of the business, Alexandre Laporte. It’s certain that we have figures that are exactly like last year, and last year was not a very strong year in cross-country skiing.”
“We are going to have a surplus of inventory following the last few years we had with COVID,” he continues. COVID forced us to buy a lot of stock following demand.”
Alpine skis, however, are more in demand.
“The ski centers still did a good job, but on the other hand, sales have moved a little so we sell a little less off-piste skiing, we sell more on-piste skiing.”
The situation is similar at the Le runner nordique store where we also expect a surplus of inventory at the end of the season.
“Cross-country skiing, which is normally a big part of our [nos ventes] winter, makes much fewer sales, says the manager, David Tardif-Fournier. There are also a lot of people who have equipped themselves in recent years.”
“We arrived at the start of this winter with a lot of inventories from last year in addition to an inventory from this year, saying to ourselves that we would have a big winter and that is not the case,” adds -he. We hope that things will catch up in the coming winters.”
The sporting goods retailer has, however, noted an increase in sales of running-related items in recent months.
“We don’t have any snow so we are on the sidewalks and on the asphalt so it’s clear that people say they can go running,” explains Mr. Tardif-Fournier. We have a 35% increase in shoe sales in January and February compared to last year.”
The temperature forecast over the coming days, however, risks calming the runners’ enthusiasm and launching the skating season across Quebec.