Retail stores closed on Sunday, 1st November

“Due to the emergency measures taken to  contain the spread of Covid-19 all commercial stores in the country will remain closed  on Sunday, 1st November ,” a statement made on Thursday, 29th October (issued by the General Secretariat for Trade and Consumer Protection of the Ministry of Development and Investment).

The autumn sales are starting a day later than originally scheduled, and will last until 15th November.

The Union of Consumer Workers of Greece stated that in the current difficult situation, consumers who choose this period for their purchases with a physical presence in stores, have to  be very careful and strictly follow the instructions of the National Health Care Organization EODY, especially regarding the use of a mask inside the stores as well as the observance of the allowed number of people present in the store at the same time.

In addition, according to the Union of Consumer Workers of Greece, consumers should pay attention to the following:

* Limit your needs and always plan with a list the purchases that we are going to make

* Avoid purchases from street vendors both to avoid buying unsafe and uncertified products as well as to crack down on smuggling and reduce unemployment.

* There should be no confusion between discounts and offers. The discounts are for seasonal products while the offers, where the discount is very high, are usually for obsolete items. Caution! The consumer should always check if the product belongs to the current season or to an older one, because the phenomenon has often been observed, the stores put obsolete products at a discount price at the same discount price as the products of the current season.

* In case of offers, there should be a sign indicating that offers are being made. When conducting the offers, the old and the new reduced price of the products should be clearly indicated and optionally the percentage of the reduction in visible points of the store and definitely in the points where the offered products are sold. In any case, it is not allowed to offer items whose quantity exceeds fifty (50%) of the total items available in the store.  For clothing and footwear, the old price is the price at which the product was sold for at least one month immediately before its reduction.

* Products must bear the original price and the offer price (not the discount rate). Caution! Offers often state that no changes are made.

* Pay special attention to stores that advertise high discount rates on one or a few of their items. This does not mean that the other types of these stores are cheaper than similar types of other stores.

* STOCK or OUTLET stores are obliged to indicate on the labels the old selling price, deleted and the new reduced selling price.

In the discount period, a new action plan is expected to be announced on Friday, 30th October, in order to limit the pandemic, as Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced during the cabinet meeting.

Source: Haniotika Nea, Thursday 29th Oct.