Although municipalities have finished distributing the central government's shopping coupons to the public, the result of the hard-fought effort to boost domestic demand seems as flat as the vouchers themselves.
Disappointment is spreading in the retail and restaurant sectors, which, apart from the toy business, have not felt an impact on the bottom line.
Many supermarket chains claim their sales in March actually dipped from the previous two months. "March is an important month in which we generate the largest monthly sales outside of December. It's a significant setback that we failed to boost sales last month," said a senior official of a major supermarket chain.