Larger stores should be allowed to reduce sales area to 800 square meters
From April 20th, textile, shoe and leather goods stores with a sales area of up to 800 square meters will be allowed to reopen in almost all federal states under certain hygiene conditions. However, the question of whether larger shops and department stores are allowed to reduce their sales area to 800 square meters and then sell their products on at least part of the area is treated inconsistently.
In this context, the Textile Trade Association (BTE) demands that all larger stores be allowed to serve their customers at least on 800 square meters. “For reasons of competition, larger shops and department stores must under no circumstances be further discriminated against,” demands BTE Managing Director Rolf Pangels.
According to the BTE, there are no really understandable reasons for this restriction. Companies could use appropriate barriers or measures to isolate other sales areas and thus keep customers away. The BTE is convinced that a partial opening of a large fashion or department store with several thousand square meters of total sales area on just 800 square meters would not result in large crowds of people flocking to the city center. Pangels: “Politicians seem to be running wild when city centers are expected to be overcrowded as a result of the easing of restrictions. This is completely absurd.”
Pangels also points out that the 800 square meter limit is a size of building planning law. “To set or apply this limit without real reflection on hygiene aspects has no comprehensible basis,” said the BTE managing director.
