Most stores open today: Salling and Magasin not included

March 1 is a day that many store owners have been looking forward to.

This morning, many of the stores in Denmark could reopen and invite customers inside – while adhering to the current Covid-19 guidelines of course.

But we can’t be the only ones who’ve lost an overview of which stores can open and which can’t.

These stores can open

All stores that sell things like furniture, clothes, shoes, books, etc. can reopen as long as they aren’t larger than 5000 sqm.

Cafés and restaurants cannot seat customers yet but naturally, they will continue selling takeaway so you can still enjoy a cup of morning coffee or pick up some lunch from one of our city’s many dining places.

These stores are not opening yet

But not all stores are allowed to open their doors today.

Stores that reside in malls cannot open on equal terms – this affects stores in Aalborg Storcenter, Friis, and Shoppen.

This also includes other stores that are larger than 5.000 sqm – like Magasin and Salling.

In the Ministry of Justice’s guidelines, they state that if your store is larger than the abovementioned size, you can only open to a “very limited amount of customers that have booked an appointment”, and all customers need at least 250 sqm each to move around.

According to EB.dk, the following stores will NOT open today:

• Ikea
• Magasin
• Salling
• Storcentre
• Biltema (the company only has one store larger than 5.000 sqm located in Roskilde, which won’t open)

Elgiganten is opening all their stores – except the ones in malls.

Dissatisfaction brews among larger stores

This weekend, many larger stores voiced their dissatisfaction by the fact that they cannot house as many customers as the smaller ones.

Jem & Fix for example is 1.200 sqm and can have 120 customers at the same time in their store while Bauhaus, which is 15.000 sqm, only are allowed to have 60 customers inside.

A clothing store at 4.000 sqm can according to the guidelines host up to 200 customers while Magasin in Copenhagen at 32.000 sqm only are allowed to have 128 customers at the same time.

The reason for this is the sqm-requirements per customer. And for stores at 2.000 sqm, the requirement is 10 sqm for each individual customer.

For stores at 2.000-5.000 sqm, the requirement is 20 sqm, and stores larger than 5.000 sqm have to have no less than 250 sqm per customer. Additionally, customers are only invited inside if they have booked an appointment beforehand.

Salling and Magasin bide their time

Magasin and Salling have yet to announce news about their reopening.

“The intention with the political agreement is probably not that stores like ours are supposed to reopen right now, and this size-requirement confirms that,” Peter Fabricius, director of economy at Magasin du Nord, explains to B.T.