Half of respondents are in favor of restoring Sunday trade at least until the end of 2020, show results from a survey conducted by Kantar TNS on behalf of the members of the Association of Employers of Polish Trade and Services (ZPPHiU). As many as 66 percent of those who regularly shopped before the pandemic want to be able to shop on Sundays. “Over the past seven weeks, among those who bought at shopping malls at least once a week before the epidemic, there has been an increase in support for the restoration of commercial Sundays from 50 percent to 66 percent (+16 pp),” TNS Kantar, a global market research and market information group, stated on May 28.

ZPPHiU hopes for a change regarding the restoration of commercial Sundays while fighting the economic effects of the coronavirus epidemic. In the opinion of the authors of the report, the main argument for restoring Sunday trade is greater security when making purchases, in a smaller crowd.

Poland’s governing right-wing populist and nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party passed a law effectively banning nearly all commerce on Sundays from March 2018. Many critics speculate that the party working hand in glove with the church resorted to pork-barrel politics in the staunchly Catholic country – 92.9 percent of the population identified themselves with that denomination in 2015, according to a census conducted by Poland’s Central Statistical Office.

The TNS Kantar survey was conducted on a sample of 800 Poles aged 18+. Interviews were conducted by phone on May 13-14. ZPPHiU brings together almost 220 companies.

(PAP)