“The store is very large and will have two floors with different segments”, warns Inês Vieira, general manager of first unit of Pittol, the largest footwear chain in Santa Catarinawhich premieres on Thursday (16), from 10am, in Porto Alegre. The establishment of the store on Rua Doutor Flores, in the heart of the Historic Center, close to the only Renner in the Center, attracted attention in the region.
Store staff and providers work frantically to make final adjustments and fill the branch with products. The branch has 1,200 square meters of sales area. It should be the largest in its segment in the Capital and will be Pittol’s sixth unit in the State. Another 22 are in the neighboring state.
The chain is betting on the attractiveness of the “self-service” store model, in which all pairs are on the shelves to try and choose. The system was adopted post-pandemic and boosted sales, says managing partner Marco Pittol.
The first floor is dedicated to the female public. On the second floor, the focus is on men and children.
The opening of the new shoe store comes amid a season of debuts for at least 10 new supermarkets in the State, already shown in the column. Furthermore, the sales volume figures for retail in Rio Grande do Sul did not fare well in the recent IBGE Monthly Commerce Survey (PMC).
Rio Grande do Sul had the biggest drop, of 2.8% in everyday consumer goods, from supers to pharmacies. Fabric, clothing and footwear stores fell 5.6%, with an accumulated drop of 8.1% in the year.
“The drop is the effect of impacts from extratropical cyclones”, says CDL-POA’s chief economist, Oscar Frank.