With the start of the summer sales period on 24 June, Luxembourg is off to the races for four weeks of discounts and special offers. The grand duchy leads the way, ahead of France and Belgium.
Single-use cups, plates and cutlery are living their last days in restaurants, while 160 supermarkets are obliged to equip themselves with take-back points for packaging waste. The effects of the waste law will soon be felt in Luxembourg.
Prime minister Xavier Bettel and health minister Paulette Lenert on Wednesday are expected to unveil the next set of covid-19 laws, with the hospitality sector in particular hoping for lighter measures.
The current set of rules expires on 12 June. This includes a curfew starting midnight, restaurants closing at 10pm, negative coronavirus test results for indoor dining, a limit of four guests per household and other restrictions.
“The closure at 10pm is much too early looking at the current situation. People want to benefit from the long summer evenings,” says Jean-Claude Colbach, director of the 1Com group, which manages five bars in the Rives de Clausen and a restaurant in Bambesch.
UK deliveries coming with unexpected import charges
Many people are being forced to pay extra import charges for deliveries at their doors Many people are being forced to pay extra import charges for deliveries at their doors A UPD driver delivers parcels in Luxembourg Photo credit: Anouk Antony
Residents in Luxembourg are becoming reluctant to buy goods from the UK after Brexit, as they are being faced with import and tax charges they were not warned about when ordering items online.
No tariffs are due on goods transported between the UK and the European Union, because of a trade agreement the two sides negotiated out after Britain s departure from the 27-nation bloc. That is unless the goods originally stem from a third-party country, such as China.
It is not only house prices that are growing at an alarming rate. According to JLL, a real estate group, average rents on street shop units rose 15%, from €130 per square metre in 2018 to €150 in 2020. Assistant director of the country’s retail federation, the CLC, Claude Bizjak, examines how we got here and some possible solutions.
Jess Bauldry: How do you explain the rapid rise in rents on shop units in Luxembourg?
Claude Bizjak: One development we see, especially in Luxembourg, is that in different areas it’s real estate [projects] that try to drag in some retailers, sometimes with questionable figures. They sign a big rent with a long contract and it [the shop site] doesn’t generate the footfall announced.