Shops should be allowed to open on Sundays - that is what the trade association wants to achieve.
This is intended to make inner cities more attractive.
Berlin - Business should be able to make up for the losses from the lockdown by the end of the year.
This is what the trade association demands.
The suggestion: shops open on Sundays, at least until the end of the year.
"That would be a clear signal to the people that the city centers are open again and that the shops are back for everyone," said HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth.
"It also gives retailers the chance to make up at least some of the sales lost during the lockdowns."
The initiative is supported by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).
Marcel Fratzscher, the president, wants to keep the shops open on Sundays as well, "so that the stationary retail trade can assert itself against the online trade and secure jobs," he told the
Handelsblatt
.
"Due to the pandemic, there was a massive shift towards online trading, which will not be completely reversed even after the pandemic," said Fratzscher. The ban on opening a shop on Sundays is a "tight corset" - and not fair competition with online retail, where you can shop around the clock.
For the Association of Towns and Municipalities, the expansion of online trading means that another topic is coming to the fore: the inner cities could become deserted and lonely.
There are also fears that the long lockdown will result in massive job losses.
"Over 100,000 shops could close or no longer open," said Gerd Landsberg, the general manager, the
Handelsblatt
.
"We now have to do everything we can to ensure that our inner cities and town centers do not become deserted," said Landsberg.
Additional Sunday opening times would be a “positive signal.
"
Going shopping on Sundays: when will that be possible?
According to
tagesschau.de,
the ver.di union has objected to this.
Here the idea is considered to be a “short-sighted general attack on the commercial workers, their families, but also on the Basic Law”.
It is by no means certain that it will soon be possible to stroll through the pedestrian zone on Sunday.
So far, only the FDP has supported the idea of Sunday openings in politics.
(kat)