From December 1, 2023, shops in downtown Bern will be allowed to open for an hour longer on Saturdays, the canton of Bern writes in a statement. Customers can then shop until 6 p.m. In return, evening sales on Thursday will be shortened by one hour, so the shops will close at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.
The reason for this pilot test was a request from the employer organizations. Together with the commercial association, they asked the government to examine this solution, explains Christof Ammann, economic director of the canton of Bern, when asked by BärnToday. “The government has now issued an experimental regulation and assessed the application positively,” said Ammann.
The trial will last until the end of 2025. The Economic, Energy and Environmental Directorate will evaluate the pilot project upon completion.
Retail trade under pressure
In recent years, fewer and fewer people have attended the evening sales on Thursday evenings. On the other hand, the shops are busy late on Saturday afternoons. The government council hopes that the trial in a selected test area in downtown Bern will provide insights into the needs of customers.
The new opening hours are intended to accommodate their shopping habits. The reason given is that the retail trade, which has been under pressure for a long time, should be able to position itself better compared to online retail.
Ruedi Flückiger, managing director of the Bern Commercial Association, believes that this will work: “We have a train station nearby that has much longer opening times. And if you make an adjustment, it will certainly increase the attractiveness of the entire city of Bern,” he says.
“Whether there is a need will become apparent during the course of the pilot test,” says Christof Ammann. That is why the evaluation of the experiment is also important. The employers’ organizations found that sales fell massively on Thursday evening. Conversely, it is almost impossible to get people out of the stores on Saturday. “This suggests that behavior has changed,” says Ammann.
Evening sales on Thursdays are a tradition, says Ruedi Flückiger, but they have “simply outlived their usefulness”: “If the employees just stand in the stores and sit through that hour, then no one is being served.”
No extension of opening hours
As a result of this change, store employees will have to work an hour less on Thursday and an hour longer on Saturday. There is already criticism from employees, says Flückiger. “But it’s not an extension of the opening hours,” he says. Overall, the stores will remain open for the same amount of time as before. And: “This change is also an opportunity for us. In this way we can strive for a collective employment agreement for the retail sector in the city of Bern.”
The collective employment contract is intended to regulate working conditions in the retail trade in a uniform manner. By adjusting the shop opening times, a step has been taken towards the city in the hope that a collective employment agreement will be introduced in the future.
The evaluation at the end of the trial operation is intended to show how the changed opening hours affect the employees. This takes into account an important concern of the trade unions.
2023-10-27 22:46:44
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