First Corona, then high energy prices: Shops in Germany are “partly existentially” burdened
Created: 12/14/2022 11:56 am
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
People walk through the pedestrian zone in the city center with shopping bags.
© Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa/archive image
During the corona pandemic, around 41,000 retailers in Germany had to go out of business.
The head of the trade association warns of further burdens from high energy prices.
Berlin – Corona pandemic, energy crisis and high inflation: This not only makes life difficult for consumers in Germany, but also for retailers.
As a result, tens of thousands of shops had to close forever – and chain stores had to give up many locations.
41,000 fewer retail stores than before the Corona pandemic
During the Corona pandemic, significantly more retailers had to go out of business than usual.
"Compared to 2019, we lost around 41,000 businesses," said the President of the German Trade Association (HDE), Alexander von Preen, to the newspapers of the
Funke media group
.
In the pre-Corona times, on the other hand, only around 5,000 shops per year would have closed nationwide.
The HDE President reported that chain stores had given up 30 percent of their locations during the pandemic.
According to him, there are currently around 312,000 stores nationwide.
These would now be “partly existentially” burdened by the high energy prices.
"If energy prices double, profits will shrink to zero in many places"
"In retail, energy costs are around 1.5 percent to two percent of sales," said von Preen.
At the same time, the return on sales is only 1.5 percent to three percent.
"If energy prices double or even increase tenfold, profits will shrink to zero in many places."
The food trade with large refrigerated counters is particularly suffering.
(lma/AFP)