Chart: Retail sales by commodity, 1998Consumers spent more in retail stores on motor vehicles and related products in 1998 than they did on food, clothing and footwear combined. Out of every $100 of retail spending, Canadians purchased $35.00 worth of motor vehicles and related products, compared with $19.44 spent on food and $9.89 on clothing and footwear. These proportions were about the same as they were in 1997.
The fourth largest category was home furnishings and electronics, which took $7.31 of every $100 spent by consumers. Purchases of prescription and over-the-counter drugs took $3.99, slightly outpacing the $3.83 spent on sporting and leisure goods. Consumers spent $3.22 out of every $100 on alcoholic beverages, compared with $2.37 on tobacco products and supplies.
Chart: Retail sales by commodity, 1998
In total, spending in retail stores reached $246.8 billion in 1998, up 3.6% from 1997. Consumers spent about $86.4 billion on motor vehicles and related products, and $59.3 billion on food and beverages.
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Of the auto-related sales, about 42% went to new motor vehicles - cars, trucks, minivans or sport utility vehicles, including leased vehicles at their full selling price, not at the monthly lease rate. Another 18% was spent on used motor vehicles, 18% on gas and oil, 13% on parts, and 10% on service.
Data provided by the Quarterly Retail Commodity Survey allow analysis of the market shares of various types of retail stores with respect to certain commodities. The data show the type of retail outlets where consumers prefer to buy these commodities, and shifts in consumer preferences.
For example, Canadians spent $16.6 billion on health and personal care products in 1998. These include cosmetics, drugs (prescription and over-the-counter), vitamins, eyewear, and other toiletries. Although drug stores captured the majority of the market for these products (61.8%), consumers decided to buy $6.3 billion worth of these products at other types of retail stores. Food stores managed to capture $2.6 billion (15.8%) of the market, while general merchandise stores grabbed another $2.4 billion (14.6%).
Sales of tobacco products and supplies totalled $5.8 billion in 1998. Although the majority (61.1%) was bought at food stores (includes supermarkets as well as convenience stores), drug stores laid claim to $387.5 million (6.6%) of the tobacco market. The remainder was purchased mainly at general merchandise stores, gas stations and duty-free outlets.
Drug stores, in fact, sell a widely diversified selection of products. In 1998, consumers bought $855 million of food and beverages at their local drug store, mostly in the form of candy and snacks ($493 million). They also bought $353 million of home furnishings and electronics (still cameras and related products for example); $329 million of housewares, mostly household cleaning supplies; $125 million of newspapers, magazines and books; $30 million of women's hosiery and $22 million of jewellery and leather goods.
Analysis of the market share of certain retail outlets from one quarter to another shows shifts in consumer shopping patterns.
In the fourth quarter of 1998, Canadians bought the majority (55.2%) of their home furnishings and electronics from a specialty store. However, department stores gained ground during the holiday period for these items, accounting for 20.3% of their sales, up from 16.7% in the third quarter of 1998. Other general merchandise stores, in combination with home and auto supply stores, also made gains. Their market share for home furnishings and electronics rose from 11.8% in the third quarter to 14.1% in the fourth.
During the Christmas season, department stores also grabbed a bigger slice of the pie for clothing and footwear. In the fourth quarter of 1998, consumers bought 26.9% of their clothing and footwear at a department store, compared with 24.4% in the previous quarter. Specialty stores still accounted for the majority of the clothing and footwear market in the fourth quarter (50.8%).
The gain for department stores in sales of men's clothing was bigger than that for women's clothing. The department stores' share of the men's clothing market increased from 25.6% to 29.3% (up 3.7 percentage points) between the third and fourth quarter of 1998 while their share of the women's clothing market rose from 22.5% to 25.2% (up 2.7 percentage points).
In total, consumers spent $66.7 billion in retail stores during the last three months of 1998. (Quarterly data have not been adjusted for seasonality.)
For more data, contact the Client Services Unit (613-951-3549; 1-877-421-3067; retailinfo@statcan.ca), Distributive Trades Division. For analytical information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Leslie Kiss (613-951-3556), Retail Commodity Section, Distributive Trades Division.