In the three years since the start of the pandemic, many more retailers have closed in Bavaria. According to the trade association, there were a total of around 6,500 stores in 2020, 2021 and 2022, almost 800 a year would be normal. Of course, the pandemic is not responsible for all the closures, said the German news agency’s chief executive Bernd Ohlmann. But she is the cause of the “dramatic increase”.
The number of retailers has fallen below 58,000, even as some of the closures have been offset by startups, Ohlmann said. Overall, however, far fewer companies have given up than feared. As of spring 2021, the association had seen some 19,000 stores in existential danger. He attributes the fact that it was much less serious to, among other things, state aid for corona and the simplification of short-time work. In addition, medium-sized companies in particular have often used private reserves.
Typical inner-city assortments such as clothing, shoes or watches were particularly hard hit, often also by large chain stores. In contrast, the food retail trade has weathered the crisis relatively well. Online commerce is the winner of the pandemic: in the three years its sales have increased overall by around 60%.
Whether the trade is over the mountain is hard to say, Ohlmann said. There is an “anxious hope – but with lines of concern”. The reasons for the latter range from the energy crisis to fears of new production outages in China and supply shortages.
