Never in a month of Sundays

As Justyna Kur, the deputy CEO and real estate director at Apsys (pictured left) recalls, over the last few months the situation has been rather exceptional, as everyone has been trying to get back to the kind of results they had before the lockdown. “In these circumstances, the Sunday trading ban has been having a significant impact on the health of the retail sector. The losses resulting from the Sunday trading restrictions since the beginning of the ban have not been made up for by the increased footfall and turnover over the rest of the week,” she says. Contrary to the claims of the legislators of the act, under the present circumstances, Sunday shopping has not been shifted out onto Fridays and Saturdays, and the food & beverage as well as the entertainment sectors have been hardest hit. “People mainly visit restaurants in shopping centres when they are doing their shopping, so tenants from this sector are in practice unable to make up for their lost trade on other days of the week. The turnover of F&B operators is estimated to have fallen by several dozen percent,” she explains. Marcin Krysiński, the co-owner of the Mihiderkan restaurant chain, admits that his company has suffered badly due to the Sunday shopping ban. “Before the introduction of the restrictions, Sunday had been one of our best trading days in the week, both in terms of the number of customers and the value of their receipts. It used to be a day when entire families would come out and eat with us. And the losses we have suffered have also hit our restaurants that are not in shopping centres,” laments Marcin Krysiński. He goes on to insist that repealing the ban, especially in the wake of the pandemic, would give the chain a chance to increase its sales and gradually recover its losses. “We would also be able to improve our supply chains, which would make our operations more efficient,” he adds.

For the good of the worker

On the day the Polish President signed the act into law, Elżbieta Rafalska, who was at the time the Minister of Labour, argued that many families and workers had been eagerly waiting for a ban on Sunday trading. There’s possibly some truth in this, but since then many of these workers have either lost their jobs or are living in fear of this. “The direct result of the Sunday retail ban has not just been reduced footfall and shopping centre revenues, but also a reduction in the demand for labour, which from a broader economic perspective results in losses to the state treasury from lower VAT and income tax returns,” explains Justyna Kur of Apsys, who goes on to say that giving up one day of trade a week has resulted in an average reduction in employment of 10–15 pct in the stores of shopping centres. “Right now it is hard to imagine reviving the economy without considering every means of countering the expected rise in unemployment,” she adds. Marcin Krysiński of Mihiderkan also points out that Sunday used to be a day when young students had the opportunity to earn some money by working in the restaurant sector and particularly on that day. He also raises another issue that is rarely broached: “One effect of introducing the Sunday trading ban has been greater food wastage, which is often bought in excess for the Friday and Saturday shopping rush only then thrown away on Monday,” he says. At a time when the zero waste philosophy is coming into vogue, closing stores and malls on Sundays is hardly making a positive contribution to the sustainable use of resources.

Those working in the sector also bring up the subject of the shoppers themselves. Justyna Kur mentions that before the law came into force 80 pct of people stated that they did their shopping on this day of the week. “A significant proportion of shoppers consider a longer trading week to be a convenience,” she insists. Renata Kinde-Czyż, the CEO of Metro Properties, concurs, remarking that stores, markets and malls are now overcrowded on Saturdays. “Customers very much appreciate shopping on Sundays, when they can go out with the family and do their shopping in a relaxed manner,” she says, while the co-owner of Mihiderkan makes the point that this is a question that in the end shoppers themselves should decide. “Putting further restrictions on people leads directly to limiting their freedom,” he argues.

What about the government?

Shopping centres dominate the Polish retail sector – and that’s not something we just found out yesterday. Each year, they contribute millions of złoty to the government’s budget. “We are talking about app. PLN 508 mln in corporate income tax and around PLN 608 mln in real estate taxes as well as PLN 200 mln in perpetual usufruct payments. Malls employ about 400,000 people and account for around 30 pct of all retail trade,” comments Justyna Kur, who adds: “As the deputy chairman of the Polish Council of Shopping Centres, I, together with the other members of the organisation, take the position that a repeal of the Sunday trade ban is required in order to raise the turnover in this sector of the economy, to bring the market back into balance, to increase the competitiveness of the traditional retail market in the face of the growing e-commerce sector, to create more jobs and to meet the needs of society. From the first day that the draft of the bill on limiting trade on Sundays came up for discussion, the government as well as some other bodies have been arguing that it was the best possible solution. However, in the third year that these regulations have been in force, many retail organisations and businesses – especially in light of the current pandemic – are appealing to the government to re-examine the issue and consider changing the legislation.” Such appeals, however, have fallen on deaf ears, leaving the impression that parliament and the government simply have zero interest in re-opening the topic of a return to Sunday shopping; indeed, for many months they have been avoiding any discussion of the issue.

Let’s not go bankrupt!

Renata Juszkiewicz, the CEO of POHiD – the Polish Organisation of Trade and Distribution

Most retail segments were severely impacted by the pandemic, suffering falling revenues and having to make huge outlays to meet health and safety regulations. Boutique stores in malls found themselves in a worse situation, losing revenue as a result of the lockdown but still having pay running costs. Many of these companies are today on the verge of bankruptcy. Reinstating Sunday trading would prove an effective remedy, because it would improve companies’ profitability, reduce the scale of the future bankruptcies, protect jobs and improve the safety of these stores’ employees and customers. Such a measure would also reinvigorate the economy and boost the GDP.

Security and revenue

Anna Szmeja, the CEO of the Retail Institute

The return of Sunday shopping is a ‘to be or not to be’ question for many retail segments, especially those impacted most by Covid-19, including services, cafés restaurants and the entire leisure sector. Although theoretically many in this sector can operate on non-retail Sundays, the closure of fashion, health and beauty, electronics and grocery stores as well as many others has radically reduced the footfall in malls on Sundays. As a result, a return to Sunday trading would significantly improve turnover – by around 15–20 pct – allowing such businesses to make up their losses in a short period of time. A change in the law would also boost employment, allowing more of those who lost their jobs during the pandemic to find work. An extra trading day would also allow for even stricter health and safety regulations to be imposed, as the number of shoppers would be spread out over seven days and not six. However, such changes would also require effective protection measures for employees, guaranteeing them the right to a set number of Sundays off from working.