Cash register bells were jingling before virus Grinch hit

Melbourne shoppers took full advantage of their new-found freedom to spend up big in November, helping the nation to a record-setting $31.6bn splurge.

After a nationwide spending spree in November, the Sydney outbreak has kept shoppers home, with the Pitt Street mall almost deserted on Tuesday. Picture: Toby Zerna

Australians spent a record $31.6bn in shops, cafes, supermarkets and restaurants in November, as Victorians rushed to take advantage of the easing of extended COVID-19 restrictions and the Black Friday online sales period supercharged spending.

Preliminary figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show retail trade jumped by 7 per cent in the month, while retail turnover in Victoria surged by 21 per cent. Outside that state, sales lifted by a still solid 2.7 per cent, the ABS figures show.

Spending was up 13 per cent from a year earlier.

“Quite simply, November was an incredible month for Australian retailers,” said Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra.

“Black Friday, Cyber Monday and early Christmas shopping sales were just what the doctor ­ordered after what’s been a very challenging year,” he added.

In South Australia, however, the impact of Adelaide’s short, sharp lockdown last month flattened retail trade growth.

ABS director of quarterly economy-wide surveys Ben James said: “Most South Australian retail industries saw falls as a result of temporary store closures, although these falls were offset by a rise in supermarket sales.

The figures provide a warning that Sydney’s outbreak may weigh on spending in December, although stay-at-home orders have been limited to the northern beaches where the cluster originated and remains concentrated.

Still, the latest health setback has already weighed on consumer confidence, which fell for only the second time in 16 weeks, according to ANZ-Roy Morgan’s survey conducted over the weekend.

The survey shows a 2 per cent drop in confidence, led by a sharp 5.3 per cent fall in Sydney — its steepest decrease since July. The only other week confidence has dropped in more than four months coincided with Adelaide’s short lockdown in November.

A stream of negative headlines has had an effect on confidence outside NSW, even ­before the reimposition of border controls.

 

Confidence weakened in Victoria, down 2.9 per cent, while sentiment also worsened in Queensland and the Northern Territory, the ANZ report says.

ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said “the lockdown of the suburbs around Sydney’s northern beaches and the state border closures had reminded people that material downside risks remain”.

Still, at 109 points, the sentiment index remains close to its long-term average of 112. It is well above pre-COVID levels, and is miles above the lows of around 65 during the initial phases of the pandemic earlier this year.

The ABS figures also show there was a spike in spending on household goods in November — up by 13 per cent — helped along by the US-inspired Black Friday sales weekend.

There were also “significant” monthly rises in clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing, department stores, “other” retailing, and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services, the ABS report shows.

NAB economist Tapas Strickland said November’s strong lift in spending “also suggests that rolling back government support through reduced JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments does not seem to have materially affected retail sales data”.

Consumption drove the 3.3 per cent rebound in growth over the September quarter, and with more than $100bn in savings accumulated by households during the pandemic, confidence to spend would be the key to a continued recovery in 2021, Mr Strickland said.