The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
German ‘robo-shop’ criticises ‘grotesque’ ban on Sunday trading
A GERMAN “robo-shop” has hit out at a court decision to prevent it opening on Sundays amid a row over whether federal laws enshrining weekend rest should apply to unmanned stores.
Thomas Stäb, a board member of the German supermarket chain, Tegut, criticised a court ruling which has forced it to close its stores in Hesse on a Sunday despite them being fully automated, claiming the decision was “entirely grotesque”.
Tegut has 40 fully automated mini stores where it sells essentials, including butter, vegetables and milk. These are separate to its 300 traditional supermarkets across Germany.
The shops are monitored using CCTV, with people scanning and paying for items at self-service checkouts. Tegut collects customers’ IDs when they enter the store using their payment cards to avoid shoplifting. Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Stäb said the shops were “basically walk-in vending machines” which should not have to abide by federal laws forcing stores to close on Sunday.
The court judgment, which came last December, applies to its stores in Hesse, the German state which includes Frankfurt, but not in other areas such as Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
The Sonntagsruhe, or Sunday rest laws, have been in place since 1919, requiring most businesses to close their doors. The laws do not apply to restaurants, pharmacies or fuel stations.
As part of the court decision, the judges claimed that the legislation was not only about staffing but dated back to Christian principles.
Mr Stäb said that religious groups had not raised concerns over the robostore opening, saying: “In one case, the Catholic Church is even our landlord, and the pastor never raised any concern.”
However, some religious groups have been keen to keep Sunday rest laws in place, including KWA, which is part of the German Protestant Church.
It said: “Our society needs a special day per week that has its own characteristics to celebrate Christian spirituality and to have shared experiences with friends and family.” Other restrictions in Germany over store opening hours have been scrapped over the past 30 years, including laws requiring shops to close at 6.30pm during the week.
The Sunday rest rules in Germany are stricter than laws in England and Wales, where smaller stores are allowed to be open all day on Sunday.
Larger stores are limited to six consecutive hours between 10am and 6pm. Trading restrictions do not apply to airport and railway stores, pharmacies and service station outlets.
The Government had been planning to deregulate Sunday trading hours in 2020. However, it dropped the proposals after backbench Tory MPs said they would vote against it.
More recently, a think tank backed by the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove raised the suggestion that Sunday trading laws should be ditched during major floods.
The Bright Blue think tank said any relaxation would need to be “tightly defined and very clearly temporary”.