The trade ban becomes a fiction again. The shops will be reading rooms, art galleries and stations

Sunday, February 6 was the first after the establishment of a trade ban concerning, among others, the provision of postal services in stores. It turns out, however, that the first stores found a loophole in the act again, which allowed them to invite customers to them.

- If the law is inhumane and makes people's lives difficult, it will be avoided - there will always be an appropriate "wicket" for this - tells us prof. Jacek Poniedziałek, sociologist from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

And that's what's happening right before our eyes since the government decided to ban traders from Sunday trading. Sellers counted losses and one after another looked for a possible circumvention of the regulations. And they found them. This "gateway" turned out to be the Act on the ban on trading on Sunday, which, however, allowed postal services to be provided on that day. Initially, small shops, and over time also large retail chains, turned into points of ... postal services. PiS deputies and trade unionists did not like this approach. That's why they decided to tighten the rules. And - in their opinion - this time they did it right. – Regulations in Poland are treated selectively if they strike at our sense of freedom. Sellers will constantly look for a way to circumvent the trade ban, and consumers will applaud it. It is similar with respecting the Highway Code - it has been accepted that if we exceed the speed by the "symbolic" 15 km/h, the policeman will not even raise the radar - comments Prof. Jack Monday.

We found confirmation of this theory in practice. Although most shops closed their doors on Sunday, some decided to set up station waiting rooms or reading rooms in their outlets. This is because imperfect - as you can see - regulations allow.

https://www.facebook.com/olawaintermarche/posts/278921720997512– A certain kind of cultural climate in Poland makes us constantly look for solutions that will allow us to deal with difficulties. Another issue is the impossibility of building a law that would exhaust all possible eventualities and be tight enough not to make any breach - emphasizes the sociologist from the Nicolaus Copernicus University. As he says, it is difficult for society to respect orders and prohibitions that are broken even by their authors. an example comes from the politicians themselves - on the one hand, they prohibit entrepreneurs from opening shops on Sunday, on the other hand, we are constantly receiving information, e.g. about the Members who were caught shopping that day. Another curiosity is signing with Poczta Polska, i.e. a de facto state-owned company, contracts for the provision of postal services in stores, which until recently allowed to circumvent the said ban. Seeing that the legislators say one thing and do something completely different, we ourselves do not feel obliged to comply with the law - he explains. new services. The greatest opportunities are currently offered by one of the points describing the exemptions from the ban in the Act. And it reads as follows: "The trade ban does not apply] in commercial establishments, in establishments operating in the field of culture, sports, education, tourism and leisure." And it was this provision that the stores of a well-known chain took advantage of, offering customers the opportunity to shop with books in hand. If other entrepreneurs follow their example, supermarkets will probably soon become leisure facilities, art galleries or sports centres. At the moment, there are no rules that would oblige to prove that this activity is predominant.

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