Lockdown – Handel hopes for good Easter business

For domestic retailers, Easter is something like a little Christmas. There is not nearly as much for free as on Christmas Eve, but sales of 200 to 220 million euros are expected in this year’s Easter business. According to a survey, 16 percent want to spend more on Easter gifts than last year. Traditionally, these are mainly confectionery, toys, flowers and fragrances. The Easter bunny also likes to bring vouchers.

What stationary trade needs least now is a fourth lockdown, emphasized Rainer Trefelik, chairman of the federal trade division in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, in an interview with the “Wiener Zeitung”. Many companies are still a long way from their normal business and need the Easter sales to compensate for losses from the lockdowns. If Easter were to fail again, that would be “the absolute blow in the neck”, says Trefelik and emphasizes with reference to a French study and data from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (Ages): “Trade and hairdressing salons are not drivers of the infection process.”

Longing for open gastronomy

In order to be able to do really good business again, the trade still lacks open gastronomy and functioning tourism. The impulse purchases, which are important for retail, are made while strolling and looking at the displays, but without being able to go for a coffee in between, many people simply don’t enjoy it.

During the lockdowns, only basic utility stores were allowed to keep open. According to Trefelik, this led to a “very difficult internal discussion” about the sale of non-food items such as toys, clothing or garden furniture, which large retail chains have in their range. The excitement was great. Some dealers segregated their sub-ranges, others did not. Another lockdown would rekindle the dispute, which Commercial Chairman Trefelik would like to do without, as he says.