COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Many people in Germany do not want retail stores to be allowed to open more often on Sundays. This is the result of a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov, which was published on Friday. 53 percent of respondents are completely or somewhat against a relaxation. 37 percent would be in favor. 10 percent did not specify.

Men are slightly more likely to want stores to be open on Sundays (42%) than women (34%). People aged 55 and over are more likely than average to be against it (62%). This is less often the case for participants aged between 18 and 34. According to YouGov, 40 percent of this age group are against stores being open more often on Sundays than on the days set by the respective federal state. 3375 people took part in the survey.

There is currently a debate about store opening hours in Hesse. This was preceded by a court defeat for the supermarket chain Tegut. At the beginning of January, the Hessian Administrative Court ruled that the closure of the unstaffed Tegut Teo outlets on Sundays ordered by the city of Fulda was legal. According to the ruling, the stores are sales outlets within the meaning of the Hessian Shop Opening Act. The stores should therefore remain closed on Sundays in future. The YouGov survey only asked about opening hours in general and not about stores without staff.

The head of Ceconomy subsidiary MediaMarktSaturn, Karsten Wildberger, had spoken out in a Funke interview in favor of allowing German retailers to open on Sundays, citing customer wishes. This should at least be tried out.

The regulations on Sunday opening are set out in the Shop Closing Act and vary from state to state. As a rule, stores must remain closed on Sundays and public holidays. A maximum number of open Sundays is specified. In North Rhine-Westphalia there is a maximum of eight per year, in Baden-Württemberg three and in most other federal states four./cr/DP/stw