The shopping Saturday “exceeded all expectations”, according to Rainer Will, Managing Director of the Retail Association. The association expects an increase in sales of around EUR 200 million per week for brick-and-mortar retail compared to the last 13 weeks.

“The increased number of customers can be felt throughout Austria, but is much more pronounced in the regional regions than in the metropolitan areas,” said Will. There were even queues in front of some shops, which is also likely due to the Valentine’s Day discounts. “Nationwide, our dealers can look forward to an increase in sales of around 20 percent compared to the last Saturday,” Will summed up.

“Schwalbe doesn’t make a summer yet”

That of Rainer Trefelik, chairman of the Federal Trade Department in the Chamber of Commerce, is much more cautious. Yes, the customer frequency is significantly higher than in the past few weeks, but the feedback received from the dealers is not representative because there are strong distortions in Vienna due to the semester break and the demos.

“One swallow does not make a summer and one day of opening does not make a balance,” said Trefelik to the APA. You will only see things more clearly in the second half of February. But every relaxation step is important, such as lifting the 2G rule in the catering trade in a week.

Bargain hunting and Valentine’s Day

In a branch comparison, the flower, jewellery, decoration, candy and fashion retailers as well as drugstores are among the most frequented shops. Many bargain hunters probably wanted to get gifts for Valentine’s Day on Monday. Valentine’s Day has been one of the most important shopping events of the year since December and today will flush up to 128 million euros in additional sales into the coffers of the crisis-hit retailers, despite the trade association. The decisive question now is whether the high customer frequency today was just a one-off effect of Valentine’s Day.

The mild weather probably also contributed to the higher customer frequency. The major shopping streets of the country were consistently well frequented in the bright sunshine in the afternoon. The most recent steps to open up body-hugging services also had a positive impact on the number of visitors in retail.

Demos as a drop of bitterness

The joy of the dealers is clouded by the demos of measures and vaccination opponents in the inner cities of Vienna and Graz. The trade association complains that warnings in the media, such as avoiding the city center of Vienna, had cost the watch, jewelery and fashion trade in the first district in particular a lot of sales.

“Many merchants in the inner cities no longer understand the weekly demos of the Corona measures opponents,” said the President of the Trade Association, Stephan Mayer-Heinisch.