Extending shop opening hours could benefit supermarket chains at the expense of small shops

Forecast is for further consolidation in the branch, and for some individual stores be forced into closure

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Shopkeeper Aune Hietala runs a small 100-square-metre corner shop in Helsinki’s district of Tapanila. The shop belongs to the so-called M-chain, which was established in 2006 and comprises independent current consumer goods stores.
      Hietala’s shop is surrounded by large supermarkets, and she believes that many small shops will be forced to consider putting up the shutters, if the proposal aiming at the liberation of opening hours is approved.
     
”The current rules allowing only small shops to remain open on Sundays year round have been a competitive advantage for small businesses. Over the Christmas season when large supermarkets also remain open through weekends, the Sunday sales of the shop are reduced almost by half. We always hope that January would come soon and all large shops would be kept closed at weekends”, says Hietala.
      If the agreement made last week between the Service Union United (PAM) and the Federation of Finnish Commerce is passed in Parliament, all shops including large supermarkets would be allowed to remain open on Sundays all year round.
      Large shops would be allowed to remain open on Sundays until 6:00 p.m., and over the period from November through December until 9:00 p.m.
      Currently only smaller stores below 400 square metres in floor-area are allowed to remain open on Sundays throughout the year. Larger stores can remain open on Sundays from May through August, and from November through December.
     
According to Esa Kiiskinen, a member of the Board of the Federation of Finnish Commerce, it is possible that some of the corner shops will be forced to close up, if large supermarkets capture all the customers on Sundays.
      Niclas Ahlbom, the Senior Vice President in charge of store operations at Tradeka, agrees. The Tradeka chain runs Siwa and Valintatalo outlets, which are typical neighbourhood stores.
      ”If the proportion of Sunday sales has formed a significant part of turnover, many small shopkeepers will find themselves in a tough bind”, notes Kiiskinen.
      Ahlbom believes that particularly the situation of those corner shops located in the vicinity of large shopping centres could be tight.
     
”For us Sunday has been the best selling day of the week, as the large supermarkets have been closed. Sunday sales form some 25 per cent of our weekly turnover. At our store, the deregulation of opening hours could lead to a layoff of one part-time shop assistant”, reports Johanna Alastalo, whose K-market - again under the 400 square-metre threshold - is located in Helsinki’s Aurinkolahti in the vicinity of shopping mall Columbus, which boasts two large food stores, S-Market and Citymarket.
     
Researcher Katri Koistinen from the National Consumer Research Centre says that trade could continue to concentrate more if the opening hours are liberated.
      Sunday opening hours have offered a disctinct competitive advantage to small independent stores, and the number of such stores has turned upwards in the course of the current decade.
      Koistinen notes further that another more difficult question is whether or not the year-round Sunday trading is likely to thin out the network of stores.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Union narrowly agrees to year-round Sunday trading (14.11.2008)

Links:
  Federation of Finnish Commerce
  National Consumer Research Centre

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