Faced with the proposal of a group of stores for malls to reduce opening hours in the coming days due to the advance of the ômicron, Abrasce (association that represents the malls) says that each case must be evaluated individually.
“On the new cases of Covid and Influenza, the situations are being closely monitored and it is worth noting that there are divergent scenarios among the more than 100,000 shopkeepers and 600 malls in the country, which requires a unique look at each specific case and not a generalized rule that makes the sector unfeasible, since it has already been exposed that malls are capable of operating responsibly and safely”, says Abrasce in a note.
This Sunday, as anticipated by the SA Panel, Ablos, an association that brings together store chains such as Gregory, Tip Top and Dr.Feet, decided to take to malls a request for opening hours to be reduced for a few weeks.
For Mauro Francis, president of Ablos, the shorter operating time would help retailers deal with the problem of the lack of employees who received medical leave after contracting Covid or the flu in recent days.
The proposal discussed by the shopkeepers would be to shorten the service to just one shift at this moment of the most acute crisis of the contagion. The measure, according to Francis, would also be timely because it would allow cost reductions at a time when the flow of customers is also lower.
Alshop, another industry association that encompasses larger retailers, disagrees with the idea, according to Nabil Sayoun, the organization’s president.
For him, the solution to circumvent the layoffs of staff with flu or Covid is to hire temporary employees, who could work a few days a week or during the team’s attestation period, according to Sahyoun.
He also says that stores could negotiate discounts with malls for as long as they remain closed, in case all employees are contaminated.
“Can you imagine the commerce closing stores because the employees have health problems? Retail exists because of the consumer. If the consumer wants us to open 24 hours a day, we will open with great pleasure. We had a lot of losses last year . We cannot think of reducing the time even if it is half an hour”, he says.
with Andressa Motter e Ana Paula Branco
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