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The message from the authorities at Friday’s press conference was clear: There should be no sales at noon and there is definitely no congestion on Christmas shopping.
But the issue is expected to get more complicated, and there are loopholes.
Swedish trade: “I need to sell”
On the trade association’s Svensk Handels website, there is no advice on how to stop the sale at noon, even if stores are urged to take steps to reduce congestion.
“There is no risk of penalties for companies that have sales at noon,” the organization writes.
Svensk Handels’ trade policy director Mats Hedenström believes that there are other ways to reduce the spread of the infection.
– Our members must be able to sell during this period. The focus should be on stopping the congestion, he says.
No general prohibition of sale
SVT Nyheter has spoken with owners of seven shopping centers in Stockholm and Gothenburg. None of them had introduced an overall ceiling for their stores on Saturday.
There are also no general sales bans.
One reason is that shopping malls do not have the legal right to introduce rules that apply to all stores.
– It is up to the stores themselves to decide the sale. We have passed the new government restrictions, but we cannot decide how the stores will act, says Ulrika Carlsson, CEO of Nordstan Mall.
More guards
However, according to her, more guards have been appointed to limit the spread of the infection.
– We encourage customers to use different accesses and we constantly inform about the importance of not generating congestion.
Mall of Scandinavia in Solna is the largest mall in the country. A maximum ceiling will be introduced, but it is unclear how high it will be.
The same applies to AMF Fastigheter, which owns several shopping centers in the city center of Stockholm.
Gekås: The rules are strange
The Gekås department store in Ullared lowered its ceiling from 8,000 to 2,000 visitors during the spring. No update to the ceiling is relevant, according to CEO Boris Lennerhov.
– We have previously minimized congestion and made sure to keep our distances and that is the main point.
He thinks the new restrictions are “strange”.
– These are the darkest instructions I’ve ever seen. They didn’t say how or what we should do, he says.
