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from Summit Notebook:

Check Out Line: World Cup boost to Europe sales peetering out

Check out how European retailers are a little downcast now about the "World Cup" effect.

France had a spectacular flameout, and Germany, Spain and England have been struggling, leading experts to tell the Reuters Global Retail Summit that they were less optimistic about the boost sales could get from the World Cup mania sweeping the Old Continent.

DSG International, Europe's No.2 electrical goods retailer, said on Thursday it had seen a 50 percent jump in sales of televisions in the run-up to the tournament and that sales volumes were up 30 percent on the last World Cup in 2006.

And Ian Cheshire, chief executive of Kingfisher, Europe's biggest home improvements retailer, which has been selling garden gnomes dressed in the England team's kit, said "The mood effect is the thing that everyone is looking for, and based on the past week, I'm distinctly not counting on it."

Cheshire and other disappointed European CEOs can take comfort in the knowledge there are still three weeks to go leaving some of the underachieving European teams time to pick up their game.

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World Cup soccer hits home-run in U.S. bars

From our correspondent Nivedita Bhattacharjee:

Surprised at the roar from the bar around the corner on an otherwise normal work day in New York City? Don’t be. It’s the FIFA World Cup, and that pub’s full of people rooting for team USA.

As a record number of U.S. viewers tune in to experience the 90-minute soccer matches, bars and taverns from New York to San Francisco are doing all that they can to keep the cheers loud and the beers flowing. And even while at work, some Americans are letting daily tasks idle while they keep score.

Anthony was watching Friday’s nail-biter match between the United States and Slovenia at the Irish Rogue Bar with a friend who had taken a break from work.

“Everyone’s watching it in the city … It’s cool because it’s only once every four years, and unlike the Olympics, there’s only one single country that wins,” he said. “It’s definitely catching … it’s 11 o’clock in the morning and we’re sitting at a bar for the match.”

While soccer is still a distant cousin to U.S. football, baseball and basketball in terms of total viewership, it’s clear that fans’ affection for the game is building. Especially when their team starts winning.

“When they won the first game we had a lot more people in. I noticed today too, there are more people coming in. Last World Cup, I don’t think there were as many people interested, and I think that’s because of how the (US) team is playing,” Ariel Williams, manager of Dave’s Tavern said, struggling to be heard over banging tables and roaring cheer.

World Cup is no March Madness in sapping productivity

It may be the World Cup, but when it comes to sapping productivity in the United States the global soccer tournament still has a thing or two to learn from March Madness and the National Football League.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which often measures lost workplace productivity, said many U.S. fans will tune in for the quadrennial soccer tournament, which kicks off Friday in South Africa, but the event still trails the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, dubbed March Madness, and other events.

“Soccer simply has not caught on with the majority of American sports fans, Challenger CEO John Challenger said in a statement.

“However, the World Cup is a unique event and could attract a lot of viewers who might not typically go out of the way to watch a match,” he added. “Even as the sport grows in popularity, though, it will have far less of an impact on workplace productivity than the March Madness basketball tournament, for example.”

In Challenger’s nonscientific, nonbinding ranking of sporting events with the most potential to affect workplace productivity, the World Cup ranked No. 4:

No. 1 — NCAA men’s basketball tournament (aka March Madness): Widespread office tournament pools and the fact that about half of the first 32 games are played during working hours makes this “the granddaddy of productivity sappers,” the Challenger firm said. Proof of that was the use of the ”Boss Button,” which instantly hides the webcast behind a fake spreadsheet, 3.3 million times this year.

No. 2 — NFL fantasy football: Millions of fantasy football participants  manage their teams from their office. Talk about drafts and trades adds up over the 17-week season, the firms said.

Goal! but no sales, as World Cup distracts shoppers

From our apparel correspondent Nivedita Bhattacharjee:

Financo’s president Bill Susman identified an unlikely rival that could hamper retail sales all over the world in the coming months – the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

As if jittery financial markets, oil spills and debt crises are not enough, retailers will soon have to fight the World Cup to entice customers, many of whom will be esconced in front of their TV sets as the most popular soccer tournament kicks off later this month.

“Retailing for July and part of August will be globally messed up – it’s called the World Cup,” said Susman, president and chief operating officer of the investment banking boutique, during an interview at the Reuters Global Luxury Summit.

“People are going to watch TV and it will change patterns. And I think for Europe particularly, people, if they are feeling a little poorer, may stay home and watch soccer (rather) than shop,” said Susman.

 (Photo:Reuters)