ISTANBUL (Turkey), December 12 (SeeNews) – Shopping mall representatives claim that a proposed bill to ban malls from trading on Sunday and public holidays would result in a loss of 24 billion Turkish lira (8.48 billion euro/$10.54 billion) in turnover, according to a report in Turkish media.
“In this country shopping malls do 30% of their business on Sundays and out of 75 billion Turkish lira in annual revenue, nearly 24 billion would be lost from closing on Sundays,” said Hulusi Belgu, president of the Shopping Mall Investors' Association, as quoted in Zaman on Thursday.
A contrary view came from the president of the Craftsmen and Artisans Association, Mahmut Celikus, who claimed that the number of craftsman and artisan businesses had halved in the past decade, falling from 3.0 million to 1.5 million. Celikus said that revised shopping hours would give hope to small business owners trying to survive.
“Craftsmen and artisans are subjected to unfair competition," said Celikus, adding that the law would be a victory for both the small business owner and the consumer.
Meanwhile, according to Zaman, customs and trade minister Nurettin Canikli told reporters in Ankara that the government had no plans to force shopping malls to close on Sundays. “Implementation of such a plan could harm the economy,” the daily quoted him as saying.
(1 euro = 2.8302 Turkish lira)