Rewe seeks longer opening hours for shops and self-service markets

Rewe is calling for longer opening hours for its supermarkets and self-service stores, ORF reports, citing a survey commissioned by the company and comments from its Austrian chief, Marcel Haraszti.

Nearly 73 percent of about 1,000 respondents said unstaffed self-service markets should be allowed to open after 8 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays when there is demand, according to Rewe. The company also said nearly three-quarters wanted longer opening options for convenience-store containers.

Rewe abandoned plans to expand its Billa Box self-service stores after Austria’s Constitutional Court ruled that unstaffed convenience-store containers could open only for the same 72 hours per week as supermarkets. Billa currently has four such boxes across Austria. A trial of regional boxes in Carinthia was unsuccessful, with shop-opening rules among the main reasons for stopping the project.

Haraszti also wants the weekly opening-hour limit for conventional stores, including Billa, Billa Plus, Adeg, Bipa and Penny, increased from 72 to 78 hours on weekdays.

The company says the government programme provides for self-service and hybrid stores to be treated like vending-machine shops. It says outlets run fully digitally, or digitally during off-peak hours without employees, should be exempt from shop-opening rules and wants the change implemented quickly.

NEOS economic affairs spokesperson Markus Hofer said self-service shops could help fill gaps in rural areas where traditional grocery stores had closed. Rainer Trefelik, the Austrian chamber of commerce’s retail chairman, has also said he is open to discussing later Saturday opening and up to 10 Sundays a year when shops could open.

Barbara Teiber, head of the GPA trade union, opposed the proposal. “What people do not buy in 72 hours, they will not buy in 78 hours,” she said, adding that longer hours would particularly affect women and could be a social burden because of limited childcare on Sundays and during off-peak hours.

Tags: retail, shop opening hours, Austria