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Walking down Freie Strasse skirted an impossible mission on Saturday: Hundreds of shoppers lined the sidewalks and the street, huge bags of clothes and toy stores dangling from their hands. The image is similar to what can be seen annually on the weekend before Christmas, and yet there were significant differences, as is often the case this year. Tight store opening hours and access restrictions, for example, ensured that long lines formed in front of some stores.
Almost everyone adheres to the mask rule.
Mathias Böhm, Managing Director of Pro Innerstadt Basel, was also away for the weekend. “There were really a lot of people in the city,” he says. However, contrary to expectations, only a few Germans have been here to buy in recent days; the store owners would also confirm this. The locals were primarily responsible for the long lines.
“There were also queues that I had suspected beforehand,” says Böhm. He mentions, for example, “Lush” or “Rituals”, both of which have a fairly small store space and sell cosmetic and wellness products, popular Christmas gifts. Customers also had to queue in front of the Zara clothing store, at “Snipes”, at a shoe store in Steinenvorstadt, or at the Danish Flying Tiger store, as a visual inspection showed.
It was good that almost everyone met the mask requirement, Böhm said. This is confirmed by a walk through the city on Saturday: only a few people do not wear a mask on the street or have put one under their mouths, most buyers have put on a mask.
People no longer stay in the city
However, the Sunday sales would have been the easiest way to distribute to the masses, says Böhm. The shorter opening hours would also mean that more shoppers would be in the city center at the same time. But they don’t stay on the streets of Basel as long as they usually do: “Through this crisis, we have returned from the consumer experience, where they sometimes stop and drink coffee, to consumer consumption,” Böhm explains. People would buy more determinedly, get what they need, and then leave town.
However, you can feel the fact that people lack experience in consumption. “This will come back much faster later because there is a lot to do.” It is also noted that sales of Pro Innerstadt vouchers, Reka-Checks and similar vouchers have increased enormously. Businesses would also use these kinds of gifts in place of the Christmas dinner.
In the next four days, Böhm hopes again that many people will go shopping in the city. “People want to go out again before that doesn’t work anymore.”
More discipline among the population
Basel epidemiologist Marcel Tanner, who was also in the city center on Saturday, sees it in a similar light. “There is a lot of uncertainty among the population: it is not known if all the stores could still close,” he says. There are two attitudes: either it bothers you and considers that the measure is unnecessary, or you think it should be. Both variants would lead to the same result: that now you want to make your last purchase.
But Tanner also believes that the discussions in recent weeks, as well as the recently resolved measures that will come into force tomorrow, Tuesday, have led to greater discipline among the population: “We are increasingly realizing that everyone really counts and has to take part. »He also observed this over the weekend:
However, problem areas like shopping streets can pose a risk even with a mask: “You meet friends, you hug them, maybe you even take off your mask. Or you still touch your face too often; you also have to be disciplined when it comes to hygiene, ”says Tanner.
Now it is also important that discipline and solidarity persist and not be forgotten again at Christmas: “We will see in ten days if it is reflected in the numbers.”
