Galery

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The first interim autumn sales, as defined by the changes in the latest Act 4177/2013, started today and will continue until 9 November.

The new law stipulates that the sale of goods or the provision of services at reduced prices, i.e. the sales, can take place four times a year as follows:

a) Regular sales: from the second Monday of January to the end of February and from the second Monday of July to the end of August

b) Interim periods of sales: during the first ten days of May and during the first ten days of November.

During the sales retailers are allowed to indicate the percentage of reduction in addition to the old and the new price of the goods and services that are being sold at a discount whereas during all other promotional periods they are allowed to clearly indicate just the old and the new price of the goods or services offered by them. The law allows for the percentage of the reduction to be indicated only during the periods of sales and prohibits its indication during promotional campaigns.

The national confederation of Greek retailers hopes that the short interim period of sales will bring maximum results for retailers and consumers.

Will shops open on Sunday, 3 November?

At the same time, under Art. 16 of the law, shops across the country can open on Sunday, 3 November, i.e. the first Sunday of the interim period of sales.

Based on the decisions agreed by the Ministry of Regional Development, the prefectures, the national confederation of Greek retailers and trade associations, it depends on the latter whether they will urge their members to open on Sunday or not.

The federation of private employees in Greece, however, has announced a national 24-hour strike in the commercial sector on Sunday.

The data available to the national confederation of Greek retailers show that 32% of the 177 local companies respond positively to the question whether they will open on Sunday, 63% respond negatively and 5% allow the retailers to decide alone whether to open or not.

The shops in Athens will be open from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, in Thessaloniki from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, in Piraeus from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, whereas the opening hours specified in the law are from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm.

In any case, the national confederation of Greek retailers has asked all associations, regardless of whether they will urge their members to open on Sunday or not, to inform it about the expected effects that the interim period of sales and the option of opening on the first Sunday of each period will have in each local market of the country in terms of attendance, turnover, earnings and expenses.