Campaign fails to hike sales

The "Alışveriş İ?in Gün Bugün" (Today is the Day for Shopping) campaign was launched jointly by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, or ITO, and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, or IBB, to boost morale in the market and increase sales, but it has failed to have an impact on Istanbul's Bakırköy district.

Tradesmen, unaware of the campaign, said many stores have already been offering low prices since the beginning of November on one of the most active streets of Istanbul's Bakırköy district and refused to implement further price reductions.

Most of the stores at Capacity and Carousel, among the city's most crowded shopping centers in Bakırköy, have refused to participate in the campaign. Although, a few stores in Carousel have campaign logos on display in their windows, neither Istanbul Street in Bakırköy nor the stores at Capacity have announced they are participating in the campaign. İnci is the only store implementing the campaign. "We implemented a 25 percent price reduction prior to this campaign, however, we have increased this to 40 percent with the launch of the campaign," said Yurdaer Şahin, a store representative at İnci.

Insufficient sales
Aldo, a shoe brand at Capacity, launched a price reduction prior to the campaign, said Mahir Çayan, a representative of the firm. Sales rose over the weekend with reductions of 30 to 50 percent, however, turnover was still unsatisfactory, he said.

"We do not know much about the campaign launched by ITO. We started our campaign Nov. 12. We are not considering further reductions."

Carousel management had provided the campaign logo, said a representative of Kemal Tanca, another shoe firm. "However, nobody informed us about special reductions. We have already been implementing reductions for the last three weeks."

Vakko and Kiğılı are maintaining discounts. Vakko has implemented a campaign only over weekends and Kiğılı is offering a "buy one, get one free" campaign.

But many brands at shopping centers are not considering price reductions. A representative of Adidas at Carousel said the brand offers discounts twice a year and is not considering an extra reduction. Mango and Colins Jeans are also not participating in the campaign.

Stores on the streets of Bakırköy have drawn attention with individual campaigns and prices lower than those of the shopping centers, rather than being interested in further reductions.

Bambi, a store on Istanbul Street, was not informed of the campaign despite being a member of the United Brands Association, said store representative Faruk Yılmaz. "We have implemented a price reduction of between 30 to 50 percent. We are not considering a further reduction."