Douglas planned to rededicate a quarter of its branches during the lockdown in Germany to drugstores in order to be allowed to keep them open.
The perfume chain Douglas wanted to evade the lockdown rules and for this reason has rededicated some branches in Germany to drugstores. Retail there has been closed since Wednesday. But the ingenuity was not rewarded.
The Verdi union spoke of a “disreputable undermining of the lockdown” by switching to a drugstore chain overnight. “Anyone who misinterprets the urgent lockdown and the permitted continuation of certain transactions in such a way not only makes himself untrustworthy,” said Bernhard Schiederig, the head of retail at Verdi Hessen.
Inspired by a wave of outrage, boss Tina Müller finally withdrew the tricky decision and apologized publicly. “As of today, all of our German branches will remain closed until further notice,” she said in a message from the company. She also apologized to those who were alienated or offended by our approach.
Almost a quarter of the 450 branches should have remained open. For this purpose, an informative letter was written to the employees in which the company explained how to behave towards authorities, according to a report by Bild. “In the entrance area of the store, our drugstore range should primarily be presented so that it is clear that we are a drugstore,” they say. “Please do not have aggressive conversations and avoid arguments. Explain to the officials that it is a drugstore. “
