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Vienna – Starting next week, Austria-wide mandatory 2G controls in retail will become serious. Currently, as is well known, a lockdown continues to apply to the unvaccinated. They are only allowed to leave the house for certain reasons – for example, for the daily supermarket or drugstore shopping or to stock up on cigarettes. Starting next week, “the control pressure is to increase significantly,” as announced by Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
At “points of interaction” – for example, at the entrance to a store – businesses will be required to carry out checks from Tuesday, January 11. Salzburg has already taken the lead with its 2G checks in the retail sector.
There is agreement among stakeholders that a practical solution is needed for implementation – and that “anything is better than a lockdown”. The trade association advocates that checks should be allowed to take place at the checkout at the latest. Rainer Trefelik, Chairman of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, agrees that many small and medium-sized retailers can hardly cope with comprehensive inspections at the entrances and points out that this would often require their own staff. The costs for this are often too high.
However, he thinks that checking the 2G certificate only at the time of payment would be a good idea in small stores such as tobacconists. However, it is not yet certain whether tobacconists, like food retailers or drugstores, will continue to be exempt from the obligation to check. “If someone gets advice for two hours and then is checked when paying, that makes little sense virologically,” admits Trefelik.
He hopes for a “breadth of options” that will accommodate the different types of businesses, from small merchants in the county seat to shopping centers with thousands of visitors passing through. Trefelik has much to gain from a ribbon solution, such as that practiced in Düsseldorf. Customers could pick up a ribbon at an information point in any shopping street and walk in wherever they wanted. In smaller cities, the city marketing department could take over the organization.
The details are still open. But many businesses have already started thinking about how they will implement the check. Checks will be carried out in the stores, not at the entrance, says Ernst Mayr, head of the Fussl fashion chain: “We don’t want to scare off customers straight away. In Germany, they have had good experience with this. Authorities there have already checked 20 times – and accepted the solution.
- source: derstandard.at/picture: Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay
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