Cyprus-Forum.com

[supporttheunderdog]

1) Abolition of the artificial and discriminatory concept of Tourist Areas whereby some shops can open when others nearby cannot, simply because of where they are. These exisiting laws are in any event probably contrary to EU law, since they operate against free fair and open market in which business' have a level playing field, as it provides an unfair competitive advantage to shops which are permitted to open.

This is not a call to permit general Island wide Sunday trading. See three below.

2) Abolition of the law on sales to give far greater degree of flexibilty to shops to decide when to discount. These laws are not good for the consumer since they keep prices high: there should however be some restrictions on "dumping" and an item should only be marked as in a sale or otherwise discounted by thr retailer if it has genuinly been available in stock at a set price for a certain minimim time. These exisiting laws are in any event probably contrary to EU law, since they operate against free fair and open market and restrict the ability to compete.

3)I have not yef fixed a view On Sunday trading, though I am inclined to think that restrictions should be lifted. If it is to be permitted it mut be on terms that prevent exploitation of shopworkers, who are poorly paid, and who deserve days off like all of us, so apart from anything else I wouls include a provsion requring a mandatory two complete days break per week, (if possible together) in addition to other limits on total working time, plus extra. wages for Sunday working. There are some benefits to consumers in terms of when they will be able to shop, but there is only so much money available to be spent so Sunday trading will not add much value to tne eonomy, and the main effect will be one of changing social patterns.

As an observation It looks to me that there are already too many shops in Cyprus in terms of premises available to rent, and I am not sure how some of these shops will be viable.

Any thoughts?

[CBBB]

I agree 100% with your proposals, as at is ridiculous that Costas who is an ordinary working man can shop more or less whenever he wants if he lives in Limassol, but is buggered if he lives in Nicosia (unless he can be assed to visit the Shacolas area of Nicosia, sorry, I mean Ledra Street).

However I have to disagree with a couple of your observations.

Although as you say there is a finite money supply, the introduction of longer shopping hours in other countries has been seen to increase the actual volume of trade. This happened in the UK when Sunday shopping was first allowed and in Germany when they first allowed shopping on Saturdays (which was not that long ago). One of the reasons presumably being that with more hours to be worked by shop staff, more people are employed, thus increasing the movement of funds within the economy.

The shopping restrictions are kept in place to placate POVEK the union of small shopkeepers because they are seen as a lot of votes when any elections come round, but I am sure their votes would be far outweighed by consumers who want more freedom to shop. Unfortunately many of the small shops are not really viable as one man and his dog operations, and would probably go to the wall with liberalisation, so they should form alliances to provide better economies of scale like some of the kiosks and mini-markets who have become part of local franchise operations, such as the So-Easy group which can obviously reduce costs by common purchasing and simplifying administration.

Having said all that, it looks as though the retail industry is about to go through even worse times with one of the main (if not the main) supermarket chains about to go down the tubes, which in itself would not be a bad thing, but the knock effect to suppliers who are probably owed for everything they supplied that chain in the last year (at least!) will be devastating, as many of them will also go down. Not to mention the effect this will have on the Banks (yet again) that are ultimately financing all that credit.

[supporttheunderdog]

Is it the foreign owned one which is now operating purely as a franchise operation and not a co-owned joint venture, or the Big "O". or would that be telling?

Yes in theory more opening hours might lead to more jobs and that provides people with more money to spend but there is only a finite money supply and if someone is spending more on shopping the money cannot be used elsewhere, that or it was funded by credit which is now in short supply, and where in the UK the retailing revolution in seems to have come to an end with many well known chains struggling (eg Comet) and in some cases going down the tubes - EG Woolworths.

(not sure how much internet shopping has had an effect - I suspect some shops just became show rooms where no one bought but looked at what they wanted to buy and then found it cheaper on the WWW. )

Forming alliances and franchise operations for marketing, like the So-Easy chain, is one way but when I look in my village I suspect that within the village centre there are too many small supermakets, convenience stores, etc. for the trade available and I am suprised they all survive.

As for shopping in Limasol on a Sunday it is not that great....the available supermarkets are mostly small and high-priced, and I dont have that much need for beach mats, etc.

[CBBB]

Is it the foreign owned one which is now operating purely as a franchise operation and not a co-owned joint venture, or the Big "O". or would that be telling?

Yes in theory more opening hours might lead to more jobs and that provides people with more money to spend but there is only a finite money supply and if someone is spending more on shopping the money cannot be used elsewhere, that or it was funded by credit which is now in short supply, and where in the UK the retailing revolution in seems to have come to an end with many well known chains struggling (eg Comet) and in some cases going down the tubes - EG Woolworths.

(not sure how much internet shopping has had an effect - I suspect some shops just became show rooms where no one bought but looked at what they wanted to buy and then found it cheaper on the WWW. )

Forming alliances and franchise operations for marketing, like the So-Easy chain, is one way but when I look in my village I suspect that within the village centre there are too many small supermakets, convenience stores, etc. for the trade available and I am suprised they all survive.

As for shopping in Limasol on a Sunday it is not that great....the available supermarkets are mostly small and high-priced, and I dont have that much need for beach mats, etc.

I PM'ed you.

[GreekIslandGirl]

1) Abolition of the artificial and discriminatory concept of Tourist Areas whereby some shops can open when others nearby cannot, simply because of where they are.

There are always exemptions. There are tourists areas all over London, for example, which have shops that open all hours as any stroll down Baker Street or Leicester Square will vouch. These shops used to open Sundays before the Sunday trading laws even.

[Hyder]

As someone who isn't religious on the whole I have to say that I'm all in favour of shops opening on Sundays.

However I am in favour of the retention of rest time for shop employees (relative to e.g. the UK or US where near constant shopping is possible in major cities).

Shop opening times should be for the convenience of the (non-retail sector) working population. Cyprus seems to have got this the wrong way round. Shops close for lunch, & a very long lunch at that, when this is when office/industrial/govt workers are freed up to buy stuff. Ditto Saturday afternoons & all day Sunday.

Shop workers certainly deserve the same amount of time off as other people, but wouldn't it be more intelligent to give them this free time during Mon-Fri during hours that the majority of their customer base is tied up?

So instead of 8am-1.30pm, 3pm-6.30pm the hours should be 11am-8pm with no break all week but open on Monday at 1pm & close on Thursday at 3pm

[supporttheunderdog]

2) Abolition of the law on sales to give far greater degree of flexibilty to shops to decide when to discount. These laws are not good for the consumer since they keep prices high: there should however be some restrictions on "dumping" and an item should only be marked as in a sale or otherwise discounted by thr retailer if it has genuinly been available in stock at a set price for a certain minimim time. These exisiting laws are in any event probably contrary to EU law, since they operate against free fair and open market and restrict the ability to compete.
quote]

latest news is that the Supreme Court seems to have agreed

Restricted sales law a violation of EU directive
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/restricted-sales-law-violation-eu-directive/20121024

An interesting comment here:
[quote ="Cyprus Mail"]In the unanimous decision, the Supreme Court upheld the company’s position that the scope of the sales law was mainly to protect consumers, not the competitiveness of businesses, as the state had argued.

so here we have a supposedly Communist party led government looking after the capitalist business interests, not the worker.

[supporttheunderdog]

Having said all that, it looks as though the retail industry is about to go through even worse times with one of the main (if not the main) supermarket chains about to go down the tubes, which in itself would not be a bad thing, but the knock effect to suppliers who are probably owed for everything they supplied that chain in the last year (at least!) will be devastating, as many of them will also go down. Not to mention the effect this will have on the Banks (yet again) that are ultimately financing all that credit.

see Tales From the Coffeeshop Tof: the saviour of the institutions that screw poor people - Cyprus Mail
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/christofias/tales-coffeeshop-tof-saviour-institutions-screw-poor-people/20121125
"
So according to the maii it is the Big "0"

IT IS NOT only the banks that need a bailout. The Orphanides supermarket chain could also have done with a big injection of cash, but its survival is not considered essential to the smooth functioning of the economy, at least by the IMF.
The company is set to go into administration, but at present its two biggest creditors, Laiki and the BofC, are bickering over the identity of the administrator. Both banks want to keep the company afloat because if it sank they stood to lose huge amounts of money, not to mention the chain’s hundreds of creditors who would go down with it.

[Get Real!]

Abolition of shopping altogether except for basic necessities sounds like the best deal in these hard times…

[supporttheunderdog]

shopping is not compulsory except for neccessities and people are cutting back which is probably why so many shops are going under.....then I have always thought we have too many shops chasing what trade there was, with some sectors badly over-filled such as the clothing, shoes and pharmacies sectors - Peripeteros too.