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christmas shopping
Closure in Germany: These are the questions shopping tourists are asking now: Parcel services are “systemically relevant”
There are no sales on Sundays in Switzerland and many stores in the neighboring country have to close again. That puts Swiss Christmas shoppers to the test.
Online trading is coming to an end. With the ban on Sunday sales in most cantons, the situation is getting worse, says the Association of Mail Order Businesses.
Not only in this country, the number of cases is high, despite the drastic measures. The coronavirus also remains stubbornly rampant in the neighboring country. German politics is enough. A strict lockdown will be applied from Wednesday. From then on, only grocery stores or pharmacies will open, and parts of retail and schools will be closed again. Restaurants and bars, as well as museums and theaters, were already closed since the beginning of November. However, for Swiss shopping tourists and cross-border travelers from Germany, nothing will fundamentally change.
Can I go shopping in our neighboring country during closing?
Yes, shopping tourism is still possible. On the one hand, the borders remain open, on the other hand, the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, which borders the two Basles, Aargau, Zurich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau, continues to allow “little border traffic”. This means that there is no quarantine requirement if you stay in neighboring Swiss regions for less than 24 hours.
However, it should be noted that many stores will be closed as of Wednesday; however, you will no longer be able to get clothes, shoes or toys at the border. In addition, the German government asks citizens to “refrain from any non-compulsory purchase.” Therefore, Swiss shopping tourists should not be particularly welcome.
Is shopping tourism in demand at the moment?
Since the beginning of the mini-closure, the International Chamber of Commerce in Konstanz has been observing that the Swiss tend to buy in the country, as CEO Claudius Marx reports. This is because stores in Switzerland remain open and there are now clear restrictions in the neighboring country. The lack of Swiss customers is, of course, fatal for German retail, which has relied heavily on the Christmas business. “We have been reported falling sales of up to 80 percent,” says Marx. With the hard lock, expect less and less rush.
What about German parcel services?
Many Swiss send their orders to a delivery address in Germany. That is still possible, parcel services will remain open beyond Wednesday. A well-known parcel service in Weil am Rhein, near Basel, writes on its website: “LAS-Burg is one of the relevant companies for the system and will continue to be
despite the new restrictions decided today,
also open after December 16, 2020. »Therefore, packages can still be picked up without restrictions. During the first lockdown in March and April, this was no longer possible for Swiss customers.
On the day the borders were reopened in mid-June, a long queue formed in front of the Las-Burg parcel service in Weil am Rhein, near Basel.
Can cross-border travelers continue to pass smoothly?
Even when the borders were closed in the spring, there were exceptional rules for cross-border travelers. Nothing is changing right now. After all, both Swiss employers and cross-border travelers themselves are interested in allowing Germans to travel to work in Switzerland. During the holidays, however, many employees will enjoy the holidays at home anyway.
How is the situation in Switzerland?
Since Sunday sales are no longer allowed in most cantons, the shopping situation will worsen. This applies to both overcrowded stores and the post office, which processes more than a million packages every day during the Christmas season and is close to capacity. Last week Patrick Kessler, managing director of the Swiss Trade Association, told this newspaper: “It would be fatal if the sales on Sunday were canceled.” Those who bought their gifts on one of these Sundays would switch to online stores, further increasing the order quantity. “By then, at the latest, the upper limit would be reached at the post office.”
What does Patrick Kessler say about the Federal Council resolutions?
Many consumers fell on Saturday, as you can see now, says Kessler. In combination with open restaurants and bars, this is a very bad development. “I suppose this constellation will increase the number of cases.” Kessler is now calling for restaurants and bars to close completely and for retail to stay open. It refers to the evolution of the number of cases in French-speaking Switzerland, where restaurants and bars have been closed for several weeks. Only in Geneva they also closed the stores outside the store. However, the crown numbers have not decreased any more than in the other cantons in western Switzerland.
What specifically does the trade association require from the Federal Council?
Retail must be kept open urgently. Otherwise, the online retailer could collapse. These companies would run out of goods and logistics would go to its knees, Kessler says. With 1.1 to 1.2 million packages per day, the mail has already reached its capacity limit. The risk of delayed delivery increases with each additional package. This will not only be felt by consumers in the form of late Christmas gifts, but also by business customers who are in dire need of on-time deliveries. If a nationwide lockdown on Germany is now being considered, Kessler calls for retail to remain open until at least 24 December inclusive. Gastronomy, on the other hand, must be closed, but it must also be properly compensated. He doesn’t want to press the ball.
Why were stores in some cantons allowed to open on Sundays despite the new rules?
That was really possible in the canton of Geneva. The Federal Council has established exceptions for cantons with “favorable epidemiological evolution”. The prerequisites: The so-called replay value must be less than 1 for at least one week. Furthermore, the 7-day incidence (per 100,000 inhabitants) must be below the Swiss average for at least one week. Adequate skills in contact tracing and medical care are also required. The Sunday sales were approved by Geneva authorities earlier this year, a spokesman for the Manor department store chain says upon request. “Sales figures in Geneva were strong on Saturday and we were doing well on Sunday as well.” And this despite the fact that some residents were confused as to whether the facilities were actually open and what.
