About every ninth Bavarian retailer wants to stick to the mask requirement in their shops. 11.7 percent said so in a survey by the Bavarian Retail Association (HBE) that ended on Saturday. 77.4 percent, on the other hand, do not want to prescribe masks via domiciliary rights. There are around 58,000 retailers across Bavaria. Although the majority of Bavarian retailers are waiving the obligation to wear a mask, many did it “with a rumbling stomach and a fist in their pocket,” said HBE Managing Director Bernd Ohlmann. Because overall, a majority of the 979 participating retailers are critical of the abolition of the state mask requirement. According to the survey, 50.4 percent think they are wrong, 39.2 percent right.
Ohlmann explained that the proportion of dealers who adhere to the obligation by domiciliary rights is so much lower than that of the abolition critics, saying that many dealers are worried about losing customers otherwise. Be it the mask-free competition, be it the online trade. At the same time, retailers also see the danger that customers who feel uncomfortable without a mask requirement will be lost. According to the survey, many retailers now want to at least make a recommendation to wear a mask. And where the mask is prescribed, it should mostly be an FFP2 mask.
The concern that employees will become infected should also play a role. Sick leave is already high in many companies and trade is sometimes at the limit, said Ohlmann. “And what use is it to a customer if he can shop without a mask but the shelves are empty because the clearers are sick.” Almost two-thirds of retailers want their own employees to be able to make the decision for or against the mask themselves, around 20 percent plan to make masks compulsory for their employees, and another 16 percent only for certain activities.
In the vast majority of Bavarian shops, customers will no longer have to wear masks. This also corresponds to the announcements of the large grocers, some of whom want to recommend at least wearing them voluntarily. Ohlmann nevertheless assumes that most customers and employees will wear masks, at least at the beginning – at least as long as the number of infections remains high.