Before Corona summit: trade association sounds the alarm - "Many traders will no longer survive the new lockdown"

The trade association views the discussion about further restrictions to contain the corona pandemic with great concern.

Many companies are threatened with extinction, warned HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth.

• For many retailers, the

  Christmas business is

  the most important sales driver of the year.

• But in view of the second

  Corona

  wave, new restrictions are threatening just before Christmas.

• The trade association HDE warns of

  shops dying

  .

Munich.

The retail trade association

has urgently warned the federal government of further exit restrictions in the important Christmas business.

"

It is imperative to prevent

a nationwide

with renewed business closings," said the managing director of the German Trade Association,

, to Merkur.de *.

In many companies "the reserves are already completely used up".

Genth warned that another cut "would not survive any more in the city center."

The Christmas business is traditionally the most important season for retailers.

Toy retailers, for example, make around 22 percent of their income in November and December, while watch and jewelry retailers make up 23 percent of their sales.

Trade: Many businesses make a fifth of their sales before Christmas

Chancellor

wants to discuss further measures to contain the

* pandemic

with the Prime Ministers of the federal states on Wednesday (November 28, 2020)

.

Dealers in city centers are therefore likely to hit potential restrictions particularly hard.

In the spring, many stores had to cope with a drastic drop in sales.

In light of the lockdown, many people were shopping online instead.

This gave the already booming online trade an additional boost.

In the current year alone, the world's largest online retailer

wants to

hire 100,000 employees.

In Germany, however, according to media reports, the company hardly pays taxes.

That causes heated discussions again and again in this country.

Looking ahead to Wednesday's summit, Genth said there was "no reason" for business closings again.

With "comprehensive hygiene concepts, retailers have shown that shopping is safe."

HDE: permanently lower VAT

At the same time, Genth spoke out in favor of a permanent reduction in

.

Because of Corona, many customers are currently avoiding the city centers.

In order for the VAT cut to also give stationary retail “a real boost, it should definitely have an effect beyond the end of the pandemic,” demanded Genth.

In order to stimulate consumption, the federal government had lowered the VAT rates on July 1st from 19 to 16 percent and from 7 to 5 percent.

At the same time, the

managing director again called for the establishment of a state

.

In a first step, 100 million euros should be available for this.

According to the ideas of the

, interested dealers should work with advisors to identify suitable digitization measures.

The implementation should then be funded from the digitization fund.