Cafés, restaurants and pubs are tight. City traffic collapsed. But shops are open. How was the first week of lockdown in retail in Saxony?
Dresden / Leipzig / Chemnitz – Cafés, restaurants and pubs are tight. City traffic collapsed. But shops are still open. How did the first one go Lockdown week at retail?
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“The hygiene rules are adhered to, but many customers stay away”: Center manager Jörg Knöfel (53) in the Roter Turm gallery. © Uwe Meinhold
“Sales have plummeted,” complains René Glaser (45), managing director of the Saxony Trade Association. He speaks for 13,000 retail companies. “This week you counted between 60 and even up to 80 percent fewer customers at a retailer in downtown Leipzig.”
The financial reserves have been used up. Glaser: “Numerous dealers had to take out loans. Some see themselves on the edge of their existence.”
That is why Glaser calls for the federal government’s emergency aid to also be extended to the retail sector: “Otherwise the inner cities with numerous vacancies threaten to continue to erode.”
In the Roter Turm gallery in Chemnitz, the counter sales in the food court are hardest hit, where you are no longer allowed to sit. “The customer frequency has decreased by up to 30 percent – especially in the evening hours,” says center manager Jörg Knöfel (53).
However, the opening times should not be shortened. Knöfel: “That would be the wrong signal to our customers.”
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After the lockdown, retailers are hoping for the Christmas business with sales of 4.4 billion euros in Saxony alone.
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