More than 60 percent of Poles favor easing the current restrictions on Sunday trading, according to a survey by UCE Research and Shopfully Poland. Experts noted, however, that this does not mean consumers want the restrictions abolished entirely.
Some 27.5 percent of respondents would like the Sunday trading ban lifted completely. Two trading Sundays a month were favored by 19 percent of those surveyed, and for 14 percent one would be enough. In total, 60.5 percent of respondents backed increasing the number of trading days.
Meanwhile, 16.5 percent of respondents favored keeping the current restrictions, and 14.3 percent believe they should be tightened further. And 8.7 percent had no firm opinion on the issue.
Robert Biegaj of Shopfully Poland, a co-author of the study, noted that the results do not show that most consumers want all stores open every Sunday.
“Nevertheless, more than 60 percent would like to be able to organize their everyday shopping more flexibly, which translates into a demand to loosen the current restrictions,” he said.
In the expert’s assessment, for many shoppers being able to visit a store on Sunday would mean more freedom in planning their week, a chance to avoid Saturday lines and a calmer way to do bigger shopping trips.
“It is clear, however, that none of the models of Sunday trading deregulation proposed in the survey won an absolute majority,” Biegaj noted.
The expert pointed to the relatively low support for keeping the current rules.
“This result should not automatically be interpreted as widespread dissatisfaction with the existing regulations. It can be concluded, however, that they do not fully suit a significant share of the survey’s participants. That is an argument for a thorough assessment of the effects of the regulations to date,” Biegaj said.
The study’s authors pointed out that introducing additional trading Sundays would not automatically lead to a proportional increase in sales.
“The actual effect would depend on whether consumers started buying more or merely spread their current spending over a larger number of days. Retail chains would also have to take into account the costs of staffing, energy, logistics and maintaining their stores. That is why, from a profitability standpoint, the result for the whole week would matter more than the result of Sunday sales alone,” Biegaj said.
In the expert’s opinion, any liberalization would not bring equal benefits to all retail formats. Large chains have extensive operational resources and organizational capacity, but they also bear significant costs of running their stores. Smaller shops, on the other hand, can benefit from being located close to customers’ homes. Some small stores, however, already trade on Sundays thanks to statutory exemptions.
“A broader opening of the market could therefore increase competition for the same customers. Without detailed financial data, it is impossible to determine who would be the biggest beneficiary of such changes,” Biegaj said.
The law gradually introducing a ban on Sunday trading took effect on March 1, 2018. Since 2020, the ban has not applied on only seven Sundays a year: the last Sundays of January, April, June and August, the Sunday before Easter and, following an amendment, also the three consecutive Sundays before Christmas.
The law restricting Sunday trading provides a list of 32 exemptions. The ban does not cover, among other things, postal services, if revenue from that activity makes up at least 40 percent of a given outlet’s sales revenue. It also does not apply to confectioneries, ice cream shops, gas stations, flower shops, newsstands or cafés.
Violating the Sunday trading ban is punishable by a fine of PLN 1,000 to PLN 100,000, and persistent violations by a penalty of restriction of liberty.
The survey was conducted by UCE Research and Shopfully Poland on a nationwide sample of 1,007 adult Poles. (PAP)
