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Hungary Domestic Trade Sector
The domestic trade sector consisted of state- and
cooperative-owned wholesale and retail enterprises and
privately
owned stores and restaurants. The Ministry of Trade
oversaw the
state-owned trade enterprises, and all state and
cooperative
commercial enterprises could engage in both wholesale and
retail
trade. Private merchants were not required to purchase
goods from
the wholesale dealers, but they were barred from
functioning as
wholesalers themselves. In 1986 Hungary had 17,222 state
retail
stores, 20,163 cooperative ones, and 22,230 private ones.
Private
contractors managed about 12 percent of the total number
of state
and cooperative-owned shops. About 75 percent of the
445,000
people working in the trade sector were women. Wages in
the
sector were 10 percent lower than the national average,
which may
account for the fact that the sector had high employee
turnover.
In 1985 Hungary had 102 shops that sold imported goods for
foreign currency with annual sales topping US$20 million.
The largest retail trade enterprise in Hungary was the
Skala-Coop chain, which several cooperative associations
founded
in 1974. Skala-Coop began purchasing goods directly from
manufacturers and used modern marketing techniques, flashy
advertising, an aggressive expansion policy, and consumer
credit
to capture about 13 percent of the country's entire trade
by
1986. The chain also became the first large trade
enterprise to
gain direct foreign-trade rights.
Data as of September 1989
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