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The holiday business is the best-selling season in retail. Now the Federal Council prohibits Sunday purchases. That is a “farce”, criticizes the association of the industry.
Such a crowd would be dangerous even with the requirement for a mask, says Federal Council: Sunday sale December 2019 in Zurich.
Photo: Walter Bieri (Keystone)
Shortly before Christmas, the Federal Council really ruined the festive mood in retail. All stores must close between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. On Sundays they are also open for shopping. before and after christmas cancelled. This is one more bad news for the ailing industry. In addition, the trade criticizes that they are treated unfairly. Because restaurants and bars can be open on Sundays and holidays.
That’s “a sham,” says Patrick Kessler, managing director of the Swiss trade association. Of course, it is understood that the Federal Council is obliged to take further action. But retailers have been taking much tougher measures for a long time and the duration of contact with third parties in stores is very short.
Why can restaurants be open on Sundays, but shops must remain closed? Federal Councilor Alain Berset did not provide conclusive reasons at Friday’s press conference: “The goal of the exercise is to reduce contacts and crowds,” he said. “Meetings in a closed room are very risky.” Experience shows that cases can be reduced if contacts are limited indoors.
Under this premise, the Federal Council should completely shut down the catering trade and make up for the failure, argues Kessler of the Swiss trade association. It is clear that retail is not a source of contagion, but “that is being ignored.”
Finance Minister Ueli Maurer It should be taken into account that Christmas is one of the most important seasons in gastronomy and that many restaurant operators make two thirds of their billing at night. The industry expects a loss of sales of 600 to 800 million Swiss francs by the end of the year.
Loss of sales of about 3 percent
But the situation is comparable in retail. Holiday sales are extremely important to the industry, with some retailers generating more than a third of their annual turnover during the Advent season, says Patrick Kessler. Sales in the toy and book trade are likely to be particularly high.
And what is the meaning of shopping Sundays? The industry expert estimates that Sunday sales before and after Christmas can account for 3 to 4 percent of sales in these two areas. Extrapolated to all retail, excluding grocery and online, the Sunday ban should correspond to a loss of sales of around 3 percent, which would be around 1 billion francs.
However, figures from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland show that Sunday sales were the weakest days of the Christmas month in terms of debit card transactions.
Given these numbers, one might think that the protest was a storm in a glass of water. However, it should be remembered that trade in the year Corona 2020 has already suffered a lot. Therefore, the stores hoped to be able to cushion the loss of sales caused by the Christmas business. Now nothing will come out.
The tightening of the measures is difficult to understand because retail has had effective and well-tested protection concepts since spring and so far it has not proven to be a source of infection, says Dagmar Jenni, managing director of the Swiss Federation of Retailers.
In terms of health policy in particular, Sunday sales and economic considerations would have been important this year, Jenni says. Sundays would help spread the customer frequency over several days. Canceling Sunday sales is counterproductive, says the Swiss trade association: “We assume that Saturdays will trigger much stronger movements,” says Kessler. In addition, more purchases would be transferred to online stores, which would also put a burden on the post office. “The pressure will increase,” says Kessler.
Federal Councilor Berset sees this argument as well. But that didn’t stop the Federal Council from imposing the sales ban on Sunday.
