Depsite a change in local laws that let businesses stay open 90 minutes later, few businesses in the northwestern Swiss city of Basel have extended hours, worrying officials that their idea of creating the "largest shopping center in the region" has fallen short.
"This promotional offensive was prompted by the fact that Basel's stores can now be open on weekdays till 8 p.m. and till 6 p.m. on Saturdays thanks to the new rest day and shop opening hours law passed in October last year. The moderate extension of opening hours by six hours per week had been fought for years by the commercial industry."
"Store opening hours, the employers argued back then, had to be adjusted to modern lifestyle, as well as to the habits in the agglomeration and across the border. Otherwise stores downtown would continue to die. According to a study of the Office of Statistics, one fifth of all stores downtown did indeed close between 1991 and 2001; roughly 4,000 jobs were lost."
"One year after the promised opening Basel is presenting itself more as a shopping desert than an oasis or a paradise. If you want to shop after 7 p.m. you will find more closed than open doors, even on Thursdays and Fridays."
Read the full story: Shopping in the evening becomes a gamble
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