Retail: «Locked» opening 18 January with click away and click in shop

It opens, barring a very serious contingency, from next Monday, 18 January, the retail trade with a combination of click away and click in shop for very specific sectors. In particular, as the days go by and the reactions of the commercial world increase, it seems that «locks» the reopening of the shops with measures and precautions for the coronavirus, as the market is now suffocating with industry representatives even talking about 200,000 upcoming lockouts - perhaps many more.

It is characteristic that the Professional Chamber of Greece estimates that «the longer this vicious cycle continues, the greater the risk that even the 50% of companies will close down immediately, while some sectors such as focus are threatened with total destruction.».

Taking into account the situation that has developed, with the data so far, as noted in ethnos.gr the Secretary General of Commerce and Consumer Protection, Panagiotis Stamboulidis, the government is ready to allow, if the green light is given by the epidemiological committee, the reopening of shops from Monday as follows:

• Opening of all shops by the method of click away, as was the case in the period before the holidays, in order to process the orders that have already been placed.
• Opening and with the physical presence of clothing and footwear stores, but also of jewellers by applying the method click in shop and with compliance with strict protection measures.

Η reopening of shops will become horizontal which means that they will work and those located in shopping centres.

The exception will be shops located in areas that are in the «red» and which have been subject to severe restrictive measures.

Where the click in shop will apply

With the click in shop ο consumer will be able to make an appointment by phone or online for a visit to the Shop at a predetermined time, to choose the product he is interested in there, to tries it if he wishes and pay for it in the shop. In any case, the obligation to send will apply sms to 13033 with the appointment from the shop in order to enable the consumer to go there.

The government's economic staff estimates that this solution can «walk» since it will give a breath to the market and will not be lost and the period of discounts, which last year led to a turnover of EUR 5 billion, while its footprint in the transmission of coronavirus is not large, as overcrowding will be prevented by the appointment process and strict adherence to the customer/square footage ratio.

Four customers per 100 square meters

«Even in wars, certain sectors of the economy remain open so that they can also feed the public coffers,» government sources say. By visiting by appointment, each store will be able to accommodate up to 4 customers per 100 square meters at the same time. In many small neighbourhood shops, this ratio practically means that only one customer can enter at a time.

In addition, for any movement it will still be necessary to send sms to 13033, with the indication 2 in the case of purchases.

According to reports, the recommendation of the competent ministries, concerns opening of shops with strict measures as it is estimated that the clothing and footwear sector lost around 80% of turnover of after the imposition of lockdown and especially during the holiday season, while jewellers hardly worked at all.

However, a similar recommendation was made last week. But he found the strong reaction of infectious disease specialists, who considered the opening of shops is risky, especially since it had qualified the opening of schools of Primary Education.

To save the discounts

The only lifeline now is to save the discounts, as the president of the Professional Chamber of Athens points out to ethnos.gr, Yannis Hatzitheodosiou adding that it is most likely that the specific branches will manage to open with limited physical presence from Monday: «Even with the «delivery within» method or click in shop. To give the the possibility of physical presence of the consumer in a shop with a predetermined appointment and for a limited period of time», he stresses.

He adds that due to the situation that has developed, there is an immediate need for the adoption of emergency measures to support businesses, such as the «haircut» of debts and the repayment of the rest of their debt in instalments of up to 120.

«The longer their opening is delayed, even under conditions and with strict sanitary measures, the greater the need for more support measures. It is now up to the government to make the final choice. But whatever it is, it must back it up with action and not leave hundreds of thousands of businesses and their workers at risk of being driven into unemployment at the mercy of God. We are asking for the obvious. To operate by rules. More dangerous is the current situation where we see misconduct while businesses and professionals are on the brink of collapse. Let the experts weigh things up and decide, but let them take responsibility for the economic disaster they are causing.».