The Sunday trading ban is becoming more and more leaky. After Biedronka, also its main competitor, i.e. the Lidl discount chain, is close to opening stores on non-trading Sundays, taking advantage of the exception for postal outlets – Business Insider Polska learned. Lidl does not want to lose customers who have a choice of more and more stores open on Sundays. The final decision on Sunday trading should be made soon.
- “It is impossible to realistically explain to the client that the competitor’s store is open on Sundays, and ours is not” – we hear from our source
- Biedronka opens more than 240 stores on non-trading Sundays, which many of their employees do not like
- The Sejm has received a proposal to tighten the ban on Sunday trading – it is to allow only those stores where postal activity is predominant to operate on the second day of the weekend
- More such stories can be found on the main page of Onet.pl
As our information shows, Lidl polls the crews of individual stores on the possibility of opening them on non-trading Sundays. I want to take advantage of the exception provided for post offices. It is at stake only some of the branches are opened on Sundays (Lidl already has over 780 stores throughout Poland). I am talking mainly about those that operate near other stores open on the second day of the weekend, mainly Biedronki, because this chain is Lidl’s main competitor. Exactly that Biedronka’s decision to open more than 240 stores on Sundays subject to the trade ban mobilized Lidl to act.
Because still On July 12, we wrote in Business Insider Polskathat the German network is not planning to introduce postal services, which was confirmed by the company’s press office at the time. In our text, however, we have indicated that the situation may change if there will be a massive number of Biedronki open on Sundays – then Lidl will have no choice but to open its stores. This scenario is now close to being implemented.
– It is impossible to realistically explain to the customer that the competitor’s store is open on Sundays, and ours is not – says our source from Lidl. – We lose business from it, it is no longer possible to function this way – he adds.
Lidl is concerned about the turnover of stores
Lidl is concerned that customers, having a choice of more and more stores from other chains, will choose them instead of Lidl not only on Sundays, but also on other days of the week. The turnover of individual outlets may suffer, and discounters are stores operating on low margins. AND Lidl is not satisfied with the sales results in Poland.
– We are currently considering various scenarios – says Business Insider Polska Aleksandra Robaszkiewicz, head of corporate communications and CSR at Lidl Polska, when asked about the opening of stores on Sunday. He emphasizes that the company has been operating on the Polish market for many years, adapting to the current economic conditions. – We always operate in accordance with applicable law – he emphasizes.
Biedronka calls the opening of stores on Sundays a test all the time. It implements them in cooperation with Poczta Polska. – The number of outlets operating in this way is the result of the staffing capacity of our network and the needs of customers who want the availability of many functions in one place – informs us the Biedronka press office. At the same time it confirms that on Sunday, August 15 stores will not open. The reason is that it is also a church holiday (Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
Many employees of the chain do not like the opening of Biedronka stores on Sundays. – People run away on sick leave, throw papers – a trade union activist recently spoke about the situation among employees. This is a problem that Lidl will also have to face. The ban on trade was supposed to provide people employed in trade with the right to free Sundays – there are only seven trade Sundays a year.
Kaufland has postal service but still doesn’t sell on Sundays
Lidl, like Kaufland, belongs to the German Schwarz Group. Interestingly, the former informed the latter about the possibility of opening stores on Sundays. At the beginning of June, Kaufland reported that all of its stores (some of them even the size of hypermarkets) had gained the status of postal points of contact. The news electrified the media, but the German chain of stores has not yet opened on Sundays.
– At the moment, we are not changing the way Kaufland stores operate, therefore our branches are closed on non-trading Sundays – the Kaufland press office informs us.
Thanks to the exception regarding post offices, for a long time, on Sundays, among others, Żabki, ABC or Carrefour Express stores, and recently they are gradually adding new networks, signing contracts with other postal operators.
Currently, shops of chains such as (not necessarily all branches) are open on non-trading Sundays:
- Centrum Delicatessen,
- Leviathan,
- Euro Shop,
- Daisy Express,
- Top Market,
- Topaz,
- Chata Polska,
- Prim Market,
- Polomarketu,
- Dino,
- Intermarche,
- DIY stores Bricomarche.
The ban on trading is slowly becoming a fiction, which, however, pleases many customers. Because the support of Poles for the opening of stores on Sundays is growing.
More than half of Poles want to shop on Sundays
Currently, as much as 55 percent. people would like to shop on Sundays, in which every third is definitely in favor of this idea – according to a study commissioned by CBRE. Support for this idea has increased compared to 2020, when 51 percent were in favor of opening stores on Sunday. people.
Although the number of stores opened on Sundays was gradually increasing, only the last Kaufland message, and then Biedronka’s move, became the catalyst the appearance of a draft law sealing the trade ban. “Solidarity”, which is behind the Sunday closing of shops introduced by PiS, has long been striving to introduce such a provision. The draft was submitted to the Sejm at the end of July. He assumes that v Non-trading Sundays will only be open to stores where postal activity is predominant. You will need to keep a special turnover register.
The draft was not submitted to the Sejm at its one-day session on August 11. This means that MPs will deal with it in mid-September at the earliest. If the project would then be adopted, then there is no chance that it will come into force earlier than November. It still has to go through the Senate, return to the Sejm and go to the desk of President Andrzej Duda.
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