With thanks to federal councilor Guy Parmelin: Sermon and Prada in harmony

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The Federal Council paves the way for luxury shopping on Sundays. Under the leadership of Minister of Economic Affairs Guy Parmelin (64), he makes it possible to buy Gucci bags after going to church. This is meeting strong resistance. “Is that still possible?” the unions ask. And employers just shake their heads.

The state government on Wednesday decided that Sunday sales should be allowed in shopping areas. In fact, this would be an extension of shopping at the highest price point. Currently, Sunday sales are allowed to a limited extent, at train stations, petrol stations or in tourist resorts in the mountains. If Parmelin gets its way, designer dresses, watches and jewelry will also be on sale Sunday in Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lugano, Lucerne and Zurich.

Not surprisingly, this expansion is bothering unions. But employers are not happy either. They even threaten to help the project fail. The change in regulations is an “imposed special regulation”, the Swiss Retail Federation writes in a press release. From the perspective of the retail association, special luxury zones in some major cities constitute an unacceptable distortion of competition.

Walker Späh is behind it

Only goods that attract international tourists may be sold. In concrete terms, this concerns souvenirs or luxury items such as clothing, watches or the Gucci bag. The federal government hopes that more foreign tourists will flock to Switzerland and that its cities will become more competitive. Because metropolises like London allow Sunday sales.

It is not acceptable for the retail association that Parmelin uses the Gucci bag in special zones to make Switzerland more attractive to luxury tourists. But the plans approved by the Federal Council do not go back to him, but to Zurich’s economic director, Carmen Walker Späh (65). The Liberals feared that urban business tourism could no longer reach pre-Corona levels. Späh fears that people will travel less and hold more video conferences.

But that is not true. According to the Swiss Tourism Association, not all Swiss cities were able to recover equally from the corona pandemic. Compared to 2019, fewer guests stayed overnight in Lucerne from January to September 2023. But other cities recorded an increase of one to four percent, including Basel, Geneva and Walker Spähs Zurich.

When asked by Blick, Walker-Späh management does not want to comment.

“The federal government is helping to circumvent the will of the people”

For the head of trade union umbrella organization Travailsuisse, Adrian Wüthrich (43), it is clear that the city’s Sunday sales came to a standstill when retail sales collapsed due to the corona pandemic. They wanted to boost sales. “But today that is no longer necessary,” says the Travailsuisse president.

“The idea of ​​tourist zones is a classic salami tactic to bring the non-working Sunday into question more,” says Wüthrich. This is pure ideology to worsen the working conditions of the sales force in order to make more profits. And: “The federal government is helping to circumvent the will of the people.” After all, the electorate has repeatedly spoken out against Sunday sales.

Sermon and Prada

In Zurich alone, several attempts to liberalize store opening hours failed. Most recently in 2012 with the ‘The customer is king’ initiative. With more than 70 percent voting against, the people approved the project. “Now the cantons are trying to do it through the back door and the Federal Council is following along,” Wüthrich said about the fact that the state government, led by the SVP Federal Council, does not care about the referenda.

As is always the case in such situations, Federal Bern is having a hard time: it is not about the opening hours of stores, but about labor law, says Parmelin’s economic department. In fact, it is only about the fundamental possibility for the cantons to ignore the will of the people. The decision then lies with the individual cantons.

It might not be until 2025 at the earliest that preaching and Prada on Sundays are compatible.

Source:Blick