Hungarian National Trade Association Collaborates with Police to Curb Retail Thefts
November of last year saw traders seeking assistance from the National Police Headquarters (ORFK) due to a surge in shoplifting incidents amidst the crisis.
One of their proposals was to enable employees, who are questioned as witnesses, to participate in proceedings via online methods as their presence in stores is indispensable. According to Katalin Neubauer, Secretary-General of the Hungarian National Trade Association (MNKSZ), in recent months, they have also consulted with the Ministry of Justice about sifting through the regulatory obligations on the commercial sector ones that Neubauer attributes to “oppressive EU regulations.” On the agenda, for instance, is a review of consumer protection laws and reconsideration of mandatory chamber of agriculture memberships for food wholesale businesses.
The sector has been through a challenging year, but according to monthly sales data, there is an upward trajectory; people are spending more in retail stores in real terms than in the first half of the previous year. The usual price hikes at the beginning of the year did not occur, points out the Secretary-General; instead, businesses were compelled to reduce prices due to a decrease in retail volume.
However, last Christmas did not witness the usual spike in sales typical of the festive season. The expert partly attributes this to the base effect: at the end of 2022, people, emerging from Covid restrictions and buoyed by one-time budget giveaways, indulged in carefree spending a level of expenditure that was difficult to match one year on.
In the conversation, KATALIN NEUBAUER made it clear that government interventions have caused more harm than benefit to regular business operations. Learning from this, she hopes that the government truly phases out the mandatory sales promotions regarded as a political product by the end of June. The introduction of these promotions particularly undermined small shops, which cannot compete in price wars with larger units capable of optimizing their procurement more effectively. For instance, in the case of products once subjected to government pricing, there can be as much as a 30 percent price difference, with larger stores being cheaper a decisive factor for consumers. The competitive disadvantages of smaller rural stores are also apparent, as last year saw a 20 percent increase in closures compared to the previous year, and even in the financially better-situated Western border regions, stores shut down.
The sector has been through a challenging year, but according to monthly sales data, there is an upward trajectory; people are spending more in retail stores in real terms than in the first half of the previous year. The usual price hikes at the beginning of the year did not occur, points out the Secretary-General; instead, businesses were compelled to reduce prices due to a decrease in retail volume.
However, last Christmas did not witness the usual spike in sales typical of the festive season. The expert partly attributes this to the base effect: at the end of 2022, people, emerging from Covid restrictions and buoyed by one-time budget giveaways, indulged in carefree spending a level of expenditure that was difficult to match one year on.
In the conversation, KATALIN NEUBAUER made it clear that government interventions have caused more harm than benefit to regular business operations. Learning from this, she hopes that the government truly phases out the mandatory sales promotions regarded as a political product by the end of June. The introduction of these promotions particularly undermined small shops, which cannot compete in price wars with larger units capable of optimizing their procurement more effectively. For instance, in the case of products once subjected to government pricing, there can be as much as a 30 percent price difference, with larger stores being cheaper a decisive factor for consumers. The competitive disadvantages of smaller rural stores are also apparent, as last year saw a 20 percent increase in closures compared to the previous year, and even in the financially better-situated Western border regions, stores shut down.
