Open or close shopping centres on Sundays? This is the dilemma raised by the Coop. We asked Giuseppe Caprotti for his opinion, if only because of his past at the top of Esselunga.
GDO, Sunday yes or no? Giuseppe Caprotti’s point of view
If the Coop really were to turn off the lights on Sunday, we would witness a small revolution in our habits, a return to the past that must, however, come to terms with a digital present. The first effect would be a shift of shopping to Saturday and Monday, turning the weekend into an ‘assault on the ovens’ concentrated in just twenty-four hours. For the consumer, shopping could go from being Sunday leisure to a hectic Saturday morning task, with inevitably more crowded shops and longer queues. Probably not in Brianza, where there is a shopping centre on every corner. And of every brand.
The picture of the sector is that of an organism under great stress, which has to reckon with a very limp consumption trend. This is not just a perception, but a reality carved in numbers. Today, the reduction in purchasing power is the first phantom that agitates Italian families, affecting 28% of the population, to which must be added a further 24% of citizens paralysed by the fear that the economic horizon could deteriorate further. In this scenario of uncertainty, the fragmentation of supply across the country only complicates an already fragile picture, making the management of the retail giants a daily balancing act.
The interview
On this subject, the Sunday closures of the large-scale retail trade, we wanted to ask the president of the Guido Venosta Foundation, who, perhaps not everyone knows, is a great scholar of the world of commerce, if only because of his past at the top of Esselunga. He is Giuseppe Caprotti, the author of “Le Ossa dei Caprotti”, who also went to America at the time to study how to revolutionise large-scale distribution in Italy. You know his story well.
At the centre of the debate is this proposal for Sunday closing, which came from Dalle Rive, a Coop manager, to justify the return to Sunday rest, the reasons for which are clear and rest on both economic and social pillars. On the one hand, there is the acknowledgement of a contraction in spending capacity that makes Sunday a less profitable day than it used to be; on the other, a new sensitivity of workers is emerging. In today’s complex recruitment phase, work-life balance has become a key bargaining chip for attracting staff. Yet, between the lines, one reads a third, less ideal and much more pragmatic reason: the unsustainability of costs. Paying surcharges ranging from 30% to 40% for working on holidays is a luxury that even a giant like Coop finds hard to justify in its budget. What do you think?
This is an anachronistic choice. It is too late now. Besides, what does it mean to turn to the state to demand a law for a choice that one could make independently if one wanted to. If they believe that, they should shut down, leaving others free to make the choices they want. I always take the example of Mercadona. Historically, Mercadona has adopted a ‘closed on Sunday’ opening time in most of Spain, with these rules: open Monday to Saturday (e.g. 9:00-21:30). The numbers prove them right, but two things must be borne in mind: one, that this structure holds almost 30% of the market, and two, that they aim for a more efficient management of employees (*).
(*) years ago, Juan Roig, owner of Mercadona told me that he did not want to impose on his employees what he did not do himself and that was to work on Sundays.
This seems to be the main theme..
Yes, the co-op does not close on Sundays, not caring what others do, as a matter of insecurity. The issue raised is just a way to draw political attention to themselves, but the real issue is to regain efficiency within the consortia as they are. Not only that: if they had a truly loyal clientele, they would know that customers would go to them and not to others, waiting for the opening day.
And what about those who think that Sunday closures could help local commerce?
I think it is unfortunately like those who want to close the fence when the oxen have run away.
Bottom line
For many Italians, the Sunday shopping centre is not just a place to shop, but a form of free social gathering, especially in the winter months or in the suburbs. Closing it down would mean taking away a meeting place, but it could also favour a revival of small neighbourhood or inner-city shops, assuming the latter are able to intercept a demand that today appears very weak due to reduced spending power.
In the final analysis, we could see a polarisation: on the one hand those who will plan their spending more rigorously, and on the other those who will take refuge in e-commerce, which never sleeps. Could Coop’s challenge be precisely this: to prove that it is possible to educate consumers at a slower pace without losing them along the way? Who knows..
In a nutshell: Coop is calling for a law on Sunday closures (= all closed) because it is unable to establish itself as a market leader, like Mercadona in Spain.
On the role of my great-grandfather Bernardo Caprotti, called Nardo, in the foundation of some Coop supermarkets, still existing in Albiate, read here. Or look at these images.
