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Growing number of Poles oppose to restricting trade on Sundays



Warsaw, 27th February 2019

 

Growing number of Poles oppose to restricting trade on Sundays

 

The number of people negatively assessing solutions limiting trade on Sunday is gradually growing, while the percentage of respondents who are full supporters of the regulations is decreasing – these are the rudimentary conclusions from the research carried out by Maison&Partners on behalf of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

Since the beginning of 2019, more restrictive trade regulations have been in force – stores can be opened on only one Sunday a month, unlike two – as it used to be back in 2018. Increasing the level of restrictions in force, in line with the results of previous studies, causes an increase in the number of people negatively assessing solutions limiting trade on Sundays.

“Presently, the regulations in force since the beginning of 2019 are negatively assessed by 51% of respondents, while in November this number amounted only 46%,” points out prof. Dominika Maison. “At the same time, 42% Poles declare that they disapprove of closing stores on Sundays, and this is 4 percentage points more than in December 2018. It is clearly visible that, in line with our predictions and the results of previous editions of the study, the regulations on reducing trade with their gradual exacerbation are becoming more and more annoying in people’s view.”

The camp of full supporters of these changes aimed at restricting trade on Sundays is shrinking. Whereas in November 2018, there were 31% of them, currently not more than 24% of Poles declare their full support for these regulations at the moment.

However, what is not changing are the profiles of supporters and opponents of limiting trade on Sunday. Traditionally, the majority of opponents of restrictions are residents of small towns inhabited by fewer than 20,000 inhabitants, as restrictions limited their opportunities of spending their free time on weekends, and major cities inhabited by over 100,000 people. At the same time, while among the supporters of restrictions, there is exactly the same percentage of people working in trade as in others sectors, in terms of opponents, the group of people currently working in trade clearly stands out in numbers.

As in previous studies, approx. 60% of respondents declare that they do their shopping on Sundays subject to a trade ban. As many as 76% from them go to small grocery stores for this purpose, and about 40% decide to shop at petrol stations.

“We have been conducting regular surveys of the attitudes of Poles towards trade restrictions on Sundays for several months and generally all indicators remain at the same level, except two: the number of opponents of enforced solutions is increasing, and the number of supporters is decreasing,” sums up Cezary Kaźmierczak, President of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “That’s exactly what we predicted. The less trade-free Sundays there are, the more Poles are concerned about the regulations. Solutions that are to come into force in 2020 are negatively assessed by 58%, while a few months ago, it was 53%. It’s probably quite a strong signal for the ruling party to change these regulations as soon as possible, as the Polish people simply do not want them.”

 

27.02.2019 Survey by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers: Attitudes and opinions regarding the restrictions on Sunday trade – wave 3

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