Ciolacu announces the final decision in case of closing hypermarkets on the weekend

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stated at the opening of the Government meeting, on Thursday, that it is not appropriate to close hypermarkets on the weekend, in the context in which small traders complained of extremely low sales on Saturdays and Sundays, when Romanians go to the big stores.

“I want to close a topic that has caused public debate, the one related to the weekend store schedule. From the signals received from society, it is clear that it is not appropriate for shops to be closed on the weekend! Others closed the markets during the pandemic and set store hours, we are no longer at that stage“, stated Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu at the opening of the Government meeting.

The Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbbu, previously stated on B1 Tv that “there is no question of closing hypermarkets on weekends”.

“We had discussions with small retailers who also have processing, animal husbandry and outlet stores, as well as with large retailers. I want to close this topic. They won’t close”the minister pointed out.

The clarifications came after small local traders complained of extremely low sales, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, when Romanians go to the hypermarket in waves.

“Why are there hypermarkets in Romania in the heart of the market, while in Western countries they are on the outskirts of cities? Because there they had space to build, there were business opportunities immediately after the fall of the communist regime. Obviously, in the desire to be as close as possible to consumers and to have commensurate sales. And it was normal for him to do this, because we are talking about a business”sociologist Dan Petre explained for “Adevărul”.

Another reason why Romanians storm the big stores on the weekend is the fact that they don’t have time to do it during the week. Economic analyst Adrian Negrescu is of the opinion that such a consumption habit cannot be changed suddenly, overnight.