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Victoria Mindova

Significant drop in retail sales of goods and services was registered in Greece in December 2010. According to the National Statistical Institute, the total sales volume in all retail sectors decreased by nearly 7% in the last month of the past year and by 12% in November. Retailers themselves say that the Christmas and winter season as a whole was the worst in their practice.

While statistic data measure the general state of trade in the country and its changing under the pressure of economic crisis, hundreds of small retailers and manufacturing plants ceased operations in 2010. This year’s prospects are even worse. Sales of clothes, shoes and accessories registered significant decrease in demand. While large commercial centers turnover decreased by about 10%, retailers turnover decline in some cases exceeds 40%.

As it is known all the shops in Greece work between 9 am and 3 pm in compliance with the law. The shops have a two-hour break from 2 to 5 o'clock in the afternoon in the other weekdays and close at 9 o’clock in the evening. If you want to go shopping during the weekend you will find the shops open only until 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. Large retail chains and shopping malls have been an exception to this rule only in the last few years after the Olympic Games in Greece. Sunday is sacred and you can not find any shop opened except for pharmacies on-duty and petrol stations.
 
There were talks about canceling the limitation of opening hours in parallel with the process of market liberalization. This proposal was supported by the idea to allow willing shop owners to open their shops on Sundays. Greek trade unions rose up against the innovation as expected but the response by business organizations like the Hellenic Chamber of Commerce was a surprise. It opposed the idea of making Sundays a workday and accepted the extended weekly opening hours aloof.

GRReporter met the President of the National Confederation of Greek Commerce Vassilis Korkidis with the request to clarify the position of the organization concerning the opening hours.

First we asked whether the opening of shops on Sundays will help retailers increase the turnover they have lost in recent months and is it not obvious that this could have positive impact on keeping the jobs in the sector.

"It is of no use especially now to discuss shops opening on Sundays. I believe that retailers earnings made by opening the shops on one or two Sundays during the year will not cover their costs and this will only lead to greater losses," replied Korkidis. It became clear at this point that retailers have not even thought to make Sunday a workday officially. Their actual proposal which was discussed and rejected was the shops to be additionally opened on Sundays around Easter and Christmas.

Currently, shops are allowed to open on Sundays at Christmas and New Year. There was a fierce debate at the end of 2010 on whether to allow shops to open on December 12. The initiative was given a green light in Athens after both sides wrangling but the public transport announced a 24-hour strike and there was no point in implementing the initiative.

According to Vassilis Korkidis, the first issue that government and businesses should consider is the development of the historic centre of Athens and other major tourist cities in Greece. "We need to develop the central historical area of the capital and make shopping centres there. Thereby we will attract the interest of consumers and increase demand and market turnover," he said.

This means that the government should solve the problems in the city centre which tourists and citizens of Athens face every day. Homeless, drug addicts, illegal immigrants, hawkers, domestic and foreign pickpockets are part of the picture at the foot of the Acropolis, Syntagma Square or Omonia. Places central to the Greek capital that could be used for legal trade, not for illegal activities.

In the end, the President of the Chamber of Commerce was more specific on the issue of extending the opening hours of shops: "I agree that we have to finally offer the consumer effective and suitable opening hours." He explicitly stated that it was unacceptable the shops to be closed between three and five o'clock in the afternoon right in the hours when people end work and go home. "We believe that consumers should be "caught" before they get home, because it is very difficult to bring them back to the shops after that," he explained.

The Hellenic Chamber of Commerce is going to conduct a market study to reflect the basic attitude of small and large retail companies in the country to the extended opening hours. It will include a wide range of questions concerning the shops’ operation in times of crisis and will provide a basis for a final decision on how to support the demand in decline.