Retailers in three regions call on government to allow them to operate on Monday

Retailers in the administrative regions of Thessaloniki, Kozani, and Achaia, demanded on Saturday that the government reverse its decision to keep stores closed in the three regions for at least another week. Apart from the financial damage they face, the retailers also stressed that it is inexplicable that retailers in Attica, the region hit hardest by the pandemic, will begin operating again on Monday.

“A negative impression is created when the government takes a sudden decision to delay the opening of stores for a week in a city that yesterday had 350 new cases, when simultaneously over 60% of new cases are recorded in the capital and the ICUs are at capacity, and yet stores will open there normally on Monday,” an announcement by the Federation of Professionals and Traders of the Thessaloniki Administrative Region states, calling the decision both unacceptable and unfair.

“How can Athens open up when it is in the deep red epidemiologically speaking, but not Patras and Thessaloniki,” wondered Kostas Zafeiropoulos, President of the Traders and Importers Group in Patras, echoing the sentiment in an interview with thebest.gr.

Desperate retailers, both in Patras and Thessaloniki, have threatened the government that they will simply ignore its decision and open their stores normally on Monday, calling it an ‘act of resistance’.