Traders in despair as winter sales hope starts to fade

With the official start of the winter sales set for Monday, the market is at a loss trying to weigh the impact of the lockdown extension.

It remains unknown when the proper sales period starts or finishes this year, although this might be the last chance for stores to claw back some of their losses racked up over the winter season.

Market representatives say traders are in despair, as after losing some 1.5-2 billion euros in holiday turnover they had been expecting to open their stores today through the click-and-collect system and start preparing for its evolved form, the click-in-shop model, over the coming weeks.