The reports on 2020 from Thomas Merkel, Managing Director of Hild Radwelt GmbH & Co. KG in Freiburg, and Ingo Fuchs, Managing Director of Modehaus Fuchs GmbH in Endingen, sound like two sides of the same coin. "We are clearly among the winners of the pandemic," Merkel said at the press conference of the South Baden Trade Association, which was held at his company in mid-September. Like the industry as a whole, his bicycle store (1,800 square meters of retail space, 70 employees) saw a 30 percent increase in sales in 2020. In light of the pandemic, many employees did not want to use public transportation to get to work, so they switched to bicycles, Merkel reports. This year, the growth of both the industry and his company is lower, given the high level of the previous year. In addition, bicycle dealers are experiencing supply bottlenecks from manufacturers, who in turn are lacking parts from their suppliers, such as front wheel forks. Merkel does not expect business to return to normal before 2022 or 2023. Sewing World (400 square meters, 25 employees), located on the second floor of his company building, also posted "significant growth" at the beginning of the pandemic, when many people were sewing masks.
The situation was quite different at Modehaus Fuchs in Endingen. The long-established store offers clothing and accessories for women, men and children as well as young fashion on a sales area of 950 square meters and employs 26 people. In the ten years before the pandemic, his fashion house was one of the winners, reports Ingo Fuchs, who is the fifth generation to run the company. As its strengths, then as now, he cites the large assortment, the depth of advice, and the numerous and highly qualified staff. All this was not possible during the lockdowns and was no longer in demand after the first one. In the summer of 2020, many customers would not have dared to return to the reopened stores. Fortunately, things have changed in the meantime. Fuchs reports sales drops of up to 50 or 60 percent in the worst months. The company has struggled and, thanks to the family's reserves, a delivery service set up together with the trade association, short-time working allowances and other state aid, has "survived the pandemic relatively well". He emphasizes: "The fashion stores and everything that makes up our beautiful city centers would no longer exist without the bridging aid. I'm glad this happened to us in Germany." Fuchs has invested more in digital advertising during the pandemic, but because of the high return rate in his industry, an online store is out of the question for him.
Philipp Frese, managing director of Frese GmbH - Textiles Einrichten and PSSST Bettenhaus Freiburg GmbH & Co. KG, also does not have a web store. In his stores, for example, a consultation for the right pillow for neck pain takes up to 30 minutes, something like that is not possible online. But Frese also put more money into digital advertising during the Corona era, reporting, "After the initial shock, we kept up operations as much as possible to ensure visibility and not be forgotten in the pandemic." His two businesses are housed in one location, have about 700 square meters of retail space and 20 employees.
In his role as president of the South Baden Trade Association, Frese also reports a "very subdued mood" throughout the South Baden retail sector. "If the stores were closed for half the year, it can't be a good year, it can only be about damage limitation," he says. The already difficult situation is complicated by the fact that the pandemic situation has left its mark on the labor market, he added. For retailers, he says, it is difficult to get staff. Most retailers had to close completely as of Dec. 16, 2020. From March 8 of this year, there were relaxations, and in June they were finally allowed to reopen completely with hygiene requirements.
As a result, 72 percent of businesses in Baden-Württemberg report lower sales in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year, which was already partly affected by the pandemic, and only 15 percent report increased sales. The latter includes food retailers that were allowed to open. Fifty-nine percent of these retailers reported increased sales. They also rated their business situation best in June/July - a good half of the food retailers surveyed found it to be good - while overall only 17 percent of retailers in the country did the same. The increasing delta variant has again put a damper on the trade, reports Utz Geiselhart, the deputy general manager of the South Baden Trade Association. The mood was still better at the beginning of May.
Nationwide, online trade continues to boom, albeit less strongly than in the previous year, when it reached record levels. Overall, retail in Baden-Württemberg is doing worse this year than in Germany as a whole. Geiselhart cites the situation on the French and Swiss borders as well as the high number of downtown and specialty retailers particularly affected by the pandemic as reasons for this. Thus, as in the previous year, retailers with normally large numbers of customers from France or Switzerland reported major slumps across all sectors. Although the borders were no longer closed as they were in the spring of 2020, entry remained or is in part more difficult, which the association therefore criticizes. In addition, Geiselhart repeats the demands of member companies for a digital system for VAT reimbursement for Swiss customers at the border.
And now? According to chief executive Peter Spindler, the task now is to prevent another lockdown. "We know vaccinating is the only thing that will help us get out of the pandemic," he says, referring to the trade association's campaign on the subject. He stresses that there are also many businesses that have fallen through the cracks when it comes to government aid. However, he does not know of any significant number of companies closing because of Corona. Frese points out that even before Corona, many retailers were in a difficult situation. He assumes that many will now close their businesses earlier than planned due to age. "That will be seen in the next two years," he said. 
Source: https://www.wirtschaft-im-suedwesten.de/themen-trends/zwei-seiten-der-medaille/?fbclid=IwAR1aZOdNNncDlVmtdSM0y152DBmdOG62S_-RXv-xwkYozb6saiiw5rdXGr4