German discount chain Lidl has become the latest retailer in Poland to exploit a loophole that allows shops offering postal services to remain open on Sunday, avoiding a trading ban passed by the conservative government three years ago.
Trading-free Sundays were introduced following a proposal by the Solidarity trade union with the support of the Catholic church, which argued that workers should have a guaranteed day to spend with their family. Since the ban was fully implemented last year, only seven Sundays a year have unrestricted retailing.
However, the rules contain a number of exceptions, including for shops offering postal services. As a result, some chains – most famously Żabka, Poland’s largest network of grocery stores – began introducing such services. Others, including Lewiatan, Intermarché and Polomarket, have followed.
Lidl has now become the latest to do so. Starting on Sunday 5 September, it opened a number of its stores after signing an agreement for postal services with DHL and Pointpack.
“We were forced to decide to open some of the branches as a result of the actions of other market participants,” said Aleksandra Robaszkiewicz, communications head at Lidl Polska, quoted by Money.pl. She said that “requests and expectations of consumers” had also played a role.
On the same day, Kaufland, another German supermarket chain, also opened 30 of its 230 Polish stores, likewise based on an agreement with DHL signed earlier this year.
A number of other chains have recently made moves suggesting that they may also be considering sidestepping the trading ban. These include Biedronka, the largest discount chain in the country, which signed a deal with Poczta Polska, the state postal service, in July.
In response to such developments, Solidary has called for the loophole to be closed. However, after store owners won a raft of lawsuits against the Chief Labour Inspectorate (PIP), the government did not ultimately change the law to restrict the practice.
As well as giving workers a guaranteed day of rest, the trading ban was also presented as a way to support small, independent businesses (which are allowed to remain open if the owner is behind the counter) against big international retailers.
However, evidence indicates that the ban has hit smaller businesses – thousands of which have been closing – hardest and has benefited large discount stores, which are the fastest-growing retail format in the country.
Main image credit: Bambizoe/Flickr (under public domain)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
