Cyprus Editorial: Why are people (still) so stupid when it comes to “sales”?

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Yet another bastion of anti-entrepreneurship and free market obstacles has finally come down. It took a court decision last week to determine that the antiquated laws restricting sales periods for retailers was in violation of European Directives on free market activities.
The Limassol District court ruled in favour of Shacolas Group’s Ermes Department Stores and found that marking down goods with reduced prices during off-sales periods was fair practice.
Furthermore, it said that the Cyprus law violated the European Directive on Fair Commercial Practice by Businesses as regards to consumers.
In other words, the stupid laws imposed year-in, year-out and so noisily declared by the Ministries of Labour and Commerce, as if in the interest of the working classes, has finally become obsolete in what is considered as one more step from mediaeval trade practices to modern-day free market deregulation.
Why it took us nearly seven years into EU membership to discover that the out-dated regulations were in no-one’s interest, we will never understand. But judging from the excruciatingly slow pace of events in Cyprus government and society in general, particularly in recent years, one can understand why things take ages to get done here.
Now, we need a major retail chain with guts to stand up to the foolish no-shopping-on-Sunday law that takes us back to the dark ages of communist Enver Hoxha’s Albania of the 1950’s. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to maintain many of the international retail chains in Cyprus, some of which have contemplated leaving the island simply because they can only operate six days a week.
People in the present administration do not realise that taking a bold move towards greater consumer reform will be to the benefit of all classes of workers and consumers, despite their ideological views to the contrary.