Danish merchants demand action after the borders are opened again.
Border trade is back in full force.
This is how it sounds from three of the major border store chains after the borders reopened in mid-June.
– We can state that we are back at the same level as before the corona, says the CEO of Fleggaard, Lars Mose Iversen.
The tendency you can also notice at the border shops Otto Duborg and Poetzsch.
The first days showed that significantly more customers came to us than in June 2019, says Bernd Christiansen, director of both stores.
Halving additional sales
While the border with Germany was closed, several Danish stores experienced increasing sales of beer, soda and sweets.
But as we can again cross the borders in recent weeks, reports Coop, Salling Group and Rema 1000 all know that the sale of typical border goods dives.
Rema 1000 will not provide accurate numbers, but at Coop, which is behind, among others, Kvickly, SuperBrugsen and Fakta, it is reported that additional sales of border goods have fallen from 32 to 16 percent in Southern Jutland and on Lolland and Falster.
– We can see that sales of wine, beer, spirits, sweets and chocolates have fallen, says head of analysis and communication in Coop Lars Aarup.
– In the border country, sales have fallen sharply. We are back to normal, says Rema 1000 communications manager Jonas Schrøder.
And at Kvickly in Ribe comes the same message.
A large part of the sales we got home have disappeared across the border again. These are beer, water, sweets and cleaning items, says the department store manager for Kvickly in Ribe, Peter Lauritzen.
