For the festive period, the suspension of the retail trade is maintained, with the exception of the receipt of goods only by click away from tomorrow, Sunday 13 December to Thursday 7 January, due to the overload of courier services.
That is, retail sales will be allowed with a pre-purchase and pick-up procedure from outside the store.
Orders will be placed either via e-shop or by phone, and payment will be made either electronically or by POS outside the store. The order will be received by a person at a specific time and with an electronic receipt.
The waiting line outside the shops will only be allowed up to 9 people and the distance between customers should be at least 2 meters.
A business that will be found, in an audit, inside with a customer will be imposed an administrative fine -from 2,000 to 50,000 euros depending on the square meters - and will be imposed at the same time and suspension of operation from 15 to 90 days.
The click away service will only be allowed to businesses with street access, so not in closed shopping centres and businesses housed in large buildings, and they will have to have, if requested by the inspection teams, a detailed list of the day's scheduled deliveries.
It is noted that click away businesses are understood to remain closed by state order and will normally receive all benefits and protective measures.
Supermarket
This Sunday, supermarkets will be open on an optional basis and businesses will be able to operate on a click away basis.
As the Minister of Development and Investment Adonis Georgiades said yesterday in response to a question: ‘Once the click away service is launched in all other stores, it will be released in supermarkets as well.«.
Wholesale
Particularly for the functioning of the wholesale trade, because there have been complaints of irregular operation, it has been decided that only professionals related to construction activities will be allowed to be physically present inside these shops, while all other professionals will make their purchases by click away.
Hairdressers and bookshops
From Monday, 14 December 2020, the hairdressing salons - barber shops and bookstores will be open, with extended opening hours from 7 am to 10 pm.
Attendance at hairdressing salons will be by appointment only, in order to prevent any confusion, and with strict adherence to health protocols.
It is noted that the provision of manicure and pedicure services is not allowed.
The bookstores, 1,784 in number, will operate with a maximum of 4 customers in stores up to 100 sq.m. or 1 customer per 15 sq.m. for stores over 100 sq.m.
The services will also operate, apart from hairdressers and barbers, the MOTs.
festive season
The government's decision to allow retailers to operate only on a click away basis has caused a reaction in the commercial world.
For the vast majority of commercial businesses, which do not have an online store, the festive turnover is lost permanently and irrevocably, according to the Greek Confederation of Commerce and Entrepreneurship and «no replacement of losses will not come with telephone orders, as no customer pays if he does not see what he buys».
The president of the Athens Trade Association Stavros Kafounis describes the measure as «complementary that cannot replace the integrated operation of the market» and estimates that only the «10% of businesses will be able to implement the measure», while he believes that it is inapplicable to thousands of district shops.
This assessment is shared by the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Ioannis Hadjitheodosiou, who called on the government «to protect those businesses that will not be able to operate under this system».
In the same vein, the GSEVEE argues that only large businesses of trade and a small percentage of small commercial enterprises have e-shop resulting in the entire volume of sales of the festive season to be concentrated and driven to the coffers of large retail businesses while «the survival of thousands of small and medium-sized commercial enterprises is left to their fate, without the announcement of any substantial measure to support them, on the part of the government.».
The ESEE, as highlighted in a statement by its president George Karanikas, believes that «an unequal two-speed market is created, the operation of which is obvious that it does not meet the rules of fair competition: On the one hand are the thousands of closed, for two consecutive months, mainly district small and medium-sized shops, whose owners face an immediate problem of survival and whose jobs are «in the air». On the other side are the few powerful retailers, whose click away makes it easier for them to serve customers that courier companies cannot reach in time, as even their state-of-the-art e-shops have been «down» precisely because of the increased volume of orders they are receiving.».
For his part, the president of the Central Union of Chambers and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Konstantinos Michalos, noted that, since the continuation of the lockdown cannot be avoided, the government is called upon to protect the affected businesses.
In this context, he continues, he should move dynamically and take the lead in order to decide on the so-called debt forgiveness at both Greek and European level, thus enabling states to write off debts to the state that relate to companies affected by the crown virus.
