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Many people used the last hours of shopping before the national closure to shop in the city center. While the queues formed in front of the individual shops, the hair salons experienced a veritable rush.
The last shopping day before the hard closing once again attracted many people to shop in the pedestrian zones. According to real-time data from the Hystreet company, which specializes in measuring customer frequencies, around noon there were already moving more than the average number of consumers in many city centers.
Hurry to beauty salons
According to the association, hairdressing salons in particular “could hardly save themselves from the demand.” “That shows once again the social relevance of our services,” said Jörg Müller, CEO of the Central Association of German Hairdressers. Customer interest was already noticeable in the spring when the salons were allowed to reopen after six weeks.
According to Müller, December is usually the best-selling month of the year for hairdressers because many people get their hair cut again shortly before the holidays. But he doesn’t think the hairdressers took advantage of their clients’ plight on Tuesday and demanded exorbitant prices: “After all, we want to keep our clients and hopefully see them again in the New Year, preferably January 11. “Müller said.
Trade association: Christmas business turns into “fiasco”
Despite long lines in front of individual stores, retailers have no hope of being able to save the Christmas business with the latest wave of customers. “The otherwise strong sales phase at the end of the year will be a fiasco for many retailers,” said Managing Director of the German Association of Retailers (HDE), Stefan Genth, in Berlin.
At the beginning of November, the trade association was still expecting record sales of almost 104 billion euros in this Christmas business, but now it assumes that due to the close of this year, six billion euros less than the previous year will end up in the coffers.
Overall, the industry association expects sales of just under 98 billion euros in November and December, seven percent less than the previous year. It is true that online retail will increase its sales by almost a third to just under € 20 billion. However, this could not make up for losses in fixed retail, where sales were down 14 percent.
But it’s not just the closure that retailers are concerned about. According to a recent survey by management consultancy Capgemini, 28 percent of consumers in Germany want to spend less on Christmas shopping this year anyway. The reasons for this are a loss of income due to the crisis, but also the crown’s restrictions on purchases. One in five respondents plan fewer gifts this year because they will meet fewer family members at Christmas.
Collection possible in individual federal states
The demand from retailers to allow retailers to at least deliver products ordered online at actually closed stores during closure has received mixed responses in the federal states. North Rhine-Westphalia cleared the way in its Crown regulation if the collection “can be done without contact, taking protective measures against infections.” Rhineland-Palatinate also gave the green light to this. Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer even called on citizens to order local retailers during the shutdown.
NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) also asked people to buy coupons instead of ordering Christmas gifts online. “We also have a duty to show solidarity with those who close their doors to contain the pandemic and have to accept huge losses of income,” he told a special session of the state parliament in Düsseldorf.
Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, prohibited the collection of products from stationary retailers with a few exceptions. One wanted to avoid long lines in front of stores and therefore additional contacts, a state government spokesperson said. Thuringia also allowed the shipping or delivery of products ordered by phone or online.
