Sunday openings in Vienna: opportunities and concerns of the actors!

Sunday openings in Vienna: opportunities and concerns of the actors!

In Vienna, discussions about Sunday openings have flared up again. How meinkreis.at reports, a current survey by the Institute for Trade, Sales and Marketing (IHaM) shows that a whopping 63% of those surveyed want to do their shopping on weekends. But opinions on this are very divided. While the Vienna Chamber of Commerce (WKW) supports the introduction of tourism zones in which retailers can decide for themselves whether to open on Sundays, the office of Economics Councilor Barbara Novak from the SPÖ reiterates that Sunday openings are not currently an issue. For them, protecting local suppliers is their top priority.

The WKW also sees a more flexible handling of opening times as an advantage for economic value creation in areas frequented by tourists. In contrast, the GPA union is largely critical of possible changes to the law because it sees no advantage for employees. The GPA also points to additional problems, such as higher traffic volumes and the lack of child care on Sundays. Your assessment of the likelihood of a change in the law is rather pessimistic.

Monitoring and legal situation

Another exciting detail are the controls by the Vienna Market Office, which regularly checks shops that are open on Sundays. Around 150 shops in the city are affected by this regulation. Only some of the Sunday openings are legal, and the number of affected shops has remained stable for years.

This discussion about Sunday openings encounters a divided cityscape. While many Viennese are ready to shop on Sunday, the protection of small shops, especially in residential areas, is causing heated debates. It remains to be seen whether the voices of business and consumers will at some point be decisive or whether the concerns of the unions and the city government will outweigh the concerns.