Limited trade on Sunday beneficial for small stores – SME ombudsman
A great number of small- and medium-sized stores reported that they were satisfied with the Sunday trading ban, SME Ombudsman Adam Abramowicz wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
In the letter, Abramowicz drew attention to media reports about the negative impact of the Sunday trading ban on small- and medium-sized stores and pointed out that this thesis was supported by passages from an opinion by the Sejm's (lower house) Bureau of Research, which reported a 20-30 percent drop in the revenues of these stores, and the closing of 16,000 of them in 2018.
"Due to a large flow of information to the Office of the Ombudsman of commercial SMEs (through their representative organisations), as well as from individual entrepreneurs, that a large number of them (but not everyone) is pleased with the 'Sunday trade ban,' I decided to check the information that was provided by the media," wrote Abramowicz.
As to the information that 16,000 small stores had closed because of limited trade on Sundays, Abramowicz said that it was "deceptive, far from the truth and not based on reliable data." He also stated that the Central Statistical Office had not yet published any data on this subject, and that the figures which were provided were an abuse. (PAP)
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