Always open until lockdown: politicians for 48-hour final spurt in retail

Monday 14 December 2020

Always open until lockdown
Politicians for 48-hour final spurt in retail

The impending lockdown of large parts of the retail sector is intended to curb the infection rate in the pandemic. Individual politicians want to supplement the strategy: The shops are to remain open around the clock until they are temporarily closed.

Given an impending rush of customers in the retail sector before the second lockdown from Wednesday, politicians have called for stores to be temporarily opened around the clock. "It would make sense to extend the opening times into the night in order to equalize this onslaught," said FDP parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer of the "Bild" newspaper. "A 48-hour opening until lockdown prevents the formation of a queue, which from an infectious point of view must not occur under any circumstances."

The CDU member of the Bundestag and Hamburg state party leader Christoph Ploß demanded that the "shopping times be extended into the evening" in order to avoid the crowding of shops. Berlin's CDU parliamentary group leader, Burkard Dregger, urged retailers in the capital to take full advantage of the legally possible shop opening times from midnight to midnight. "According to Paragraph 3, Paragraph 1 of the Berlin Shop Closing Act, shops can open on weekdays from midnight to midnight. Retailers should now do that on Monday and Tuesday," said Dregger.

The managing director of the Main Association of German Retailers (HDE), Stefan Genth, described an extension of the opening times before the lockdown in an interview with the "Bild" newspaper as "sensible".

The resolutions of Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers of the federal states on Sunday provide for the retail trade to be closed until January 10th. Exceptions apply to grocery stores, other everyday goods and, for example, pharmacies, post offices and banks. Hairdressers, cosmetic studios and similar businesses have to close unless they carry out medically necessary treatments. The federal government announced billions in aid for the affected companies.