The book trade is “shocked” by the German government's lack of concession. The idea of pick-up stations was rejected.
The book trade is one of those industries that have been massively affected by the second lockdown. The domestic bookseller sells up to 50 percent of annual sales in November and December alone. The lockdown hits this industry particularly hard in the run-up to Christmas.
To counteract the drop in sales, the book trade had the idea of setting up pick-up stations for customers. “Everyone can pick up and pay for their prepared food at the inn”, this unequal treatment outraged the chairman of the Association of the Book and Media Industry, Friedrich Hinterschweiger. A counterpart is not possible in the book trade despite the traditional high demand.
Online trading poses another problem. This is because many domestic booksellers have been promoting this for a long time, but the amount of postage costs for the many orders currently bears no relation to the book prices. This means that the earnings situation is drastically reduced in many cases by postage and packaging costs, or in some cases even pushed to zero.
