foto: Georgi Bidenko, PrahaIN.cz/Večerka
REPORT: On Boxing Day, our editorial team went outside Prague. On the way, we saw a large number of shops that were open and could not complain about the number of customers.
Both Christmas holidays, i.e. 25 and 26 December, are subject to the Sales Hours Act 2016. This requires all retailers with a sales area of more than 200 square meters to be closed on public holidays. Gas stations, pharmacies, shops at airports and train stations are exempt.
For example, almost all Alza stores were also open by default, as it is not a sale, but a mere delivery of goods, as we reported HERE. On the way outside of Prague, we also came across a relatively large number of open convenience stores and shops, where lines of people were heading.
Almost every village has a shop
Our destination was Loket Castle in the Karlovy Vary Region. Therefore, we had to pass through a number of smaller and larger villages and towns. Almost every one had a small convenience store, typically a store of the Coop chain or a Vietnamese convenience store. We were impressed by the number of people who took their purchases home.
In one of the villages, several shopping citizens were already heading to the store. It was around ten in the morning. Armed with their bags, they entered the shop area, which was visibly lit up and thus enticing to visit. However, we do not dare to guess whether it was a store larger than 200 square meters.
Elsewhere we met residents heading home from the shop. A full shopping bag combined with cartons of milk in her hands revealed them. “People can no longer go two days without shopping. So that they don’t starve to death,” aptly commented one of the passers-by who was just walking the dog.
We wrote
They say that Christmas is a holiday of peace and tranquility. Most people don’t work. However, there are areas where work simply has to be done. We will mention for everyone…
Delivery works without restrictions. But they don’t go to the village
People could go to large food chains for their last purchases on Christmas Day until 12 noon. The stores did not open again until December 27. The restriction does not traditionally apply to delivery services, which could operate completely without restrictions even during the holidays, which many Prague residents took advantage of.
However, residents of smaller villages further from the city cannot use such options. Delivery services often do not go to them at all. “No one will bring my shopping here. For food, at most pizza from the next village, but they are also closed there for Christmas,” said an acquaintance who lives in a village near Pilsen for our editors.
Perhaps that is also why many smaller merchants decided to stay open on Christmas.
2023-12-30 04:29:13
#People #village #shops #storm
