In Bavaria, about every ninth retailer wants to stick to the mask requirement in their shops. 11.7 percent said so in a survey by the Bavarian Retail Association (HBE) that ended on Saturday. 77.4 percent, on the other hand, do not want to prescribe masks via domiciliary rights. Germany-wide figures on the dealers’ plans are not yet available.
Although the majority of Bavarian retailers do not wear a mask, many did it “with a rumbling stomach and a fist in the pocket,” said HBE Managing Director Bernd Ohlmann of the German Press Agency. Because overall, a majority of the 979 participating retailers are critical of the abolition of the state mask requirement. According to the survey, 50.4 percent think they are wrong, 39.2 percent right.
Ohlmann explained that the proportion of dealers in Bavaria who adhere to the obligation by domiciliary rights is so much lower than that of the abolition critics, saying that many dealers are worried about losing customers otherwise. Be it the mask-free competition, be it the online trade. At the same time, retailers also see the danger that customers who feel uncomfortable without a mask requirement will be lost. According to the survey, many retailers now want to at least make a recommendation to wear a mask. And where the mask is prescribed, it should mostly be an FFP2 mask.
The concern that employees will become infected should also play a role. Sick leave is already high in many companies and trade is sometimes at the limit, said Ohlmann. “And what use is it to a customer if he can shop without a mask but the shelves are empty because the clearers are sick.”
Almost two thirds of the retailers in Bavaria want to leave the decision for or against the mask to their own employees, around 20 percent plan to make masks compulsory for their employees, and another 16 percent only for certain activities. (dpa)