In the Czech Republic, large shops with a sales area of more than 200 square meters are affected by the sales ban during public holidays, which must close on New Year’s Day, Easter Monday, May 8, September 28, October 28, December 25 and 26.
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Large shops will therefore still be open on Good Friday, April 7, but must close their stores on Easter Monday, April 10, according to the law.
“On Easter Monday, April 10, Albert stores will remain closed due to legal obligation. Easter will therefore be a well-deserved rest time for our employees. Customers can shop in our stores during normal opening hours on Friday and during the weekend. We will then open the stores again on Tuesday morning according to normal opening hours,” confirms the Albert chain, for example.
The same applies to competing stores Lidl, Globus, Billa, Kaufland, Tesco and Penny Market.
Extended weekends in 2023
The Aktuálně.cz overview also shows which specific days the holidays fall on throughout the rest of the year.
Czechs will be able to treat themselves to a long weekend a total of five times, while last year it was only three times. After Easter, they also have time off in May, both May holidays fall on Mondays. This is a welcome change compared to last year, when they came out on Sunday.
Also, November’s Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy falls on a Friday, while last year people celebrated it on a Thursday.
The law on selling time has been in force since 2016, the introduction of the ban was promoted mainly by trade unionists who want to expand it further. Business unions, on the other hand, repeatedly criticize the law on sales restrictions. Compliance with the ban on sales on public holidays is controlled by the Czech Trade Inspection. Under normal conditions, sellers face a fine of up to a million crowns for violating it.
However, the ban does not apply to stores whose sales area does not exceed 200 square meters, gas stations, pharmacies, stores in places of increased concentration of passengers at airports, railway stations and bus stations, stores in medical facilities and retail and wholesale trade at the time when a state of danger is declared , a state of emergency, a state of national threat or a state of war.
• Convenience stores
There are several thousand convenience stores in the Czech Republic. About every third small shop is owned by Vietnamese traders. It is mostly a combined range of newsagents, food, household goods or drugstores. Their operation is supervised by the Czech Trade Inspection, as well as trade authorities.
• Petrol pumps
In addition to the classic range of goods, branches of food chains at pumps are becoming more and more widespread. For example, Billa opened its 24-hour minimarkets at Shell pumps. Their opening hours thus copy the opening hours of the petrol stations themselves.
• Private individuals
Private retail stores, not only small village shops, but also various delicatessens, can use their opening hours as they wish. The small area also includes most confectioneries or, for example, health food stores.
• Mobile stores
The law does not deal with them in any way, but most of them already work only on weekdays.
On the other hand, the ban also applies to bazaars, pawnshops and waste buyouts.
School holidays in 2023
When planning time off, in many households it is also necessary to take into account holidays in schools and kindergartens. In addition, the school year can also be extended several times a year by director’s leave, which, of course, each school decides for itself.
Specifically, the children have Easter vacation from Thursday, April 6. They are then followed by Easter.
