Poland's retail sector may have lost up to PLN 8 billion (EUR 1.8 billion) in November due to Covid lockdown restrictions on shopping centres, a trade council and union said on Wednesday.
Polish shopping centres will see a high number of customers this year despite the toll being exacted by lockdown restrictions on retail, a leading real-estate company has reported.
Poland will allow shopping centres to reopen from next Saturday but will keep restaurants, fitness clubs, cinemas, and theatres closed at least until December 27, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference on Saturday.
A longer lockdown could result in a wave of bankruptcies in retail as the sector reels from the income destroying effects of store and shopping-mall closures.
The measures, which include closing all theatres, museums, shopping galleries and most shops in the next few days, were announced just hours after the health ministry said the country had recorded daily records of 24,692 positive tests and 373 deaths.
The number of retail parks in Poland has grown two-fold over the last ten years, according to the report 'Retail parks and convenience centres in Poland' by real estate consultancy JLL and Trei Real Estate Poland.
In an online press conference PM Mateusz Morawiecki unveiled the government’s step-by-step plan to getting the country out of lockdown saying that restaurants could reopen soon. But he warned that shopping centre food courts and on-site catering services would remain closed, fitness clubs, recreational areas and cinemas located in shopping centres will also remain closed and hotel restaurants and recreational areas will remain shut.
The Polish government is working on terms under which shopping malls might eventually reopen for business, Deputy PM and Minister of Development Jadwiga Emilewicz told PAP after a video conference with industry representatives, attended by PM Mateusz Morawiecki.
In an interview for TFN, retail expert Hadley Dean explains why e-commerce, instead of undermining the nation’s shopping centres, could keep them crowded for years to come.
Every Saturday morning between 9 and 11, the shopping mall in Katowice will switch off its music to help autistic customers do their shopping calmly after studies show that shopping centres are the most problematic places for people with autism.
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