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Herald Reporter
Retailers are determined to ensure their shops are safe against Covid-19 infection by insisting that they, their staff and customers, continue to follow the regulations on the Covid-19 lockdown and safety protocols but would like trading hours extended as the third wave recedes.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) is continuing its pressure on the shop owners, and their customers to do the right thing and follow the rules.
The CZR State of the Retail Sector Report presented on Tuesday said: “The retail and wholesale sector is keenly aware of its responsibilities to its employees, the public and the nation at large.
“Foremost amongst those responsibilities is keeping everyone involved safe. Every consumer has the right to safety and a healthy environment.
“Therefore, the confederation reaffirms its commitment to provide a safe shopping environment for Zimbabweans.
“Working with our members, we have increased efforts to ensure that shops are safe shopping environments and will continue to encourage customers to do the right thing and follow the health measures in place,” reads the report.
CZR said the first half of the year was characterised by varying lockdown regimes meant to contain the effects of Covd-19 and while the intention was understandable and necessary, the lockdown measures negatively impacted business through supply chain disruptions and high costs of doing business against low revenues.
“As essential service providers, most retail sub-sectors were open, although other retail sub-sectors considered as non-essential remain closed.
“The lockdown measures negatively impacted real disposable incomes mainly due to constrained economic activity, with shops also opening for limited trading hours, currently restricted to 8am to 3.30pm.”
CZR added that consumers have rights to safety and a healthy environment, and these rights are more pronounced in this Covid-19 era and that members of the confederation have been implementing measures to fight the spread of coronavirus to ensure the safety of different stakeholders which include customers, employees, suppliers and others.
The implementation of these measures, however, come at higher costs, in the form of things like Covid-19 tests, purchase of face masks, thermometers, hand sanitisers, staff passage costs and in increases in security and cleaning expenses.
“Because of that, most of our members have reported that their overheads have increased. Further, the requirement to retest all employees in the event of one contracting Covid-19 compounds the situation.
“The retail sector employs a lot of people per store and it becomes expensive to test all employees. And in the unfortunate event where an employee contracts Covid-19, more trading hours are lost due to forced closure to allow for disinfecting, which can last up to three days of closure while adhering to the standard operating procedures. However, some informal and unregistered players simply send an employee home and continue trading,” CZR said.
“This is why we urge Government to strictly monitor the activities of informal traders, as they pose serious risk of spreading Covid-19 by not adhering to the health protocols of the World Health Organisation as well as the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare,” CZR said.
The confederation said in view of the declining cases of new infections and massive vaccination drive, they proposed that Government reviews trading hours to between 7am and 6pm, compared to the current 8am to 3pm.
Online Reporter