Brazil’s ongoing commercial apocalypse

Yet to recover from the mid-2010s crisis, the sector has now been severely hit by the pandemic. However, supermarkets and wholesalers have seen a net increase in jobs over the past decade

commerce pandemic problems — Supermarkets and wholesalers have seen a net increase in jobs over the past decade. Photo: Tânia Rego/ABr

Jul 31, 2021 11:24 3 min read

Welcome to “Number of the Week,” where we choose a single figure that helps understand what is going on in Brazil. This week’s number illustrates the challenges Brazilian commerce was facing even before the pandemic.

11%: of commercial traders shut down between 2014 and 2019

The pandemic delivered a death blow to thousands of companies and was particularly brutal to brick-and-mortar stores, who lost customers as Covid restrictions were enforced. But the trade sector — which includes retail, wholesale, automotive, and auto parts — was already in trouble before the pandemic. A new report by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) shows that conditions in the sector between...