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If you want to go shopping fast after work, you have to hurry. Starting today, Tuesday, November 3, stores will close earlier until further notice.
By the time of the exit restrictions, the social partners have agreed that the blinds will be lowered at 7pm. And that applies to all commercial premises, whether on a shopping street or in a shopping center. “We need a general line for everyone here,” emphasizes commercial president Rainer Trefelik. The corresponding regulation was prepared on Monday afternoon at the Ministry of Health.
With the early closure of the stores, the union wants to give predominantly female business employees a chance to be home in time for the start of exit restrictions, as GPA-djp president Barbara Teiber said. “Many depend on public transportation and do not have a car. The way home should not become a security trap.”
Hardly any sales anyway
For many retailers, early closure is not all bad. Especially in the fashion industries, such as textiles and footwear, sales curves have been pointing downward since the outbreak of the pandemic. There is also a shortage of tourists that have fueled business in central Vienna, among other places. “The prospects are not optimistic anyway,” says Trefelik, who runs a fashion store in Vienna’s first district.
Food outlets will also close at 7 pm By the way, the announcement of a near lockdown this time did not result in any hamster purchases. Stores are still full, including toilet paper and pasta, shopkeepers say. Its sales curves now point up again. Simply because consumers recharge their own refrigerators due to the lack of open restaurants.
General consumer sentiment is cautious not only in Austria. German retail is also entering a partial lockdown: Rising corona infection figures depressed consumer confidence in November for the first time in six months, the German Association of Retailers (HDE) announced. Consumers are, among other things, uneasy due to “imponderable increases in the labor market”. HDE explained that consumers were “seeing a decrease in optimism” regarding their revenue expectations.
