Politicians are Urging Citizens to Stop Shopping

The new lockdown measures come into effect on Wednesday, but that does not mean that everything should now be done on Monday and Tuesday. Several politicians are urging citizens to stop shopping. The present 2020 could be vouchers.

Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier has called on citizens to refrain from buying Christmas gifts in stores on the last two days before the tough Corona lockdown. Because of the risk of infection, people should only go shopping for “bare minimums”, said the CDU politician to the “Bild” newspaper.

Germany is returning to a tough lockdown on Wednesday due to the rise in corona infection numbers and deaths. This was decided by the federal and state governments on Sunday. The retail trade will remain largely closed until January 10th. Exceptions only apply to supermarkets and a few other shops, especially for daily needs. An extension of the hard lockdown cannot be ruled out. The federal and state governments will probably discuss this on January 5th.

Altmaier recommended vouchers as Christmas gifts, which could then be redeemed when the shops generally reopened. When this will be the case, “nobody is responsible for predicting” at the moment. The benchmark for this is the development in the number of infections and deaths.

Hardly any hamster purchases expected

The SPD chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans also warned of a rush of customers in retail on Monday and Tuesday. “The next two days will be crucial to the development of the entire month,” he said. It must be avoided that queues arise in front of the shops. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff and Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher made similar statements. Haseloff emphasized that he was not assuming “shopping tourism” from Saxony, where the retail trade was going to close completely on Monday. Tschentscher called on the citizens “not to hold Black Friday on the next two days, but only to make the most essential purchases.”

However, the trade association HDE does not expect a run on the shops. In the case of Christmas presents, there could be an “increased number of customers” on Monday and Tuesday, HDE managing director Stefan Genth told the “Handelsblatt“. But many customers would certainly have adjusted their plans for the lockdown in the past few days. The dealers have also proven in the past few months that they have functioning hygiene concepts.

In the food trade, his association does not expect “hamster purchases,” said Genth. The customers have learned that the supply chains and the supply of the population “work even under difficult conditions”.

Politicians are Urging Citizens to Stop Shopping