Retail law delay wipes out craftsmen: Sector leader

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Undue delay in the enactment of a retail law that would regulate the non-proportionally fragmented sector of Turkey has destroyed millions of small shop owners, top representative of the sector said.

“It’s strange that the numbers of shopkeepers and craftsmen are not rising while the population of the country reached around 76 million,” Bendevi Palandöken, the head of the Confederation of Turkish Craftsmen and Tradesmen (TESK) said in a written statement.The number is not rising due to the high number of businesses shut down, according to Palandöken.

A law that could establish the grounds of the retail sector as well as regulating the competition conditions in the market has been awaited by all of the retail sector players for years, but the small shop owners, who have been complaining of suffering in a battle with large shopping malls, have been the ones anticipating it most.

Underlining that it was not a war of small shop owners against shopping malls, Palandöken said the real reason behind dissolution of shopkeepers and craftsmen is the “disproportionate capital force.”
Every week at least five shopkeepers will go out of business and 10 families will go hungry if the enactment of the law is delayed, he had previously said.

Palandöken avoided blaming shopping malls, emphasizing the shopping malls should be built to be compatible with urban plans.

“The number of shopping malls in our country, which was 106 in 2005, is expected to reach 400 in 2013” he said, adding that opening so many shopping malls was “neither rational nor economic.”

In past seven years, 41 shopping malls in Turkey have been shut down and despite the public reactions against shopping malls, there are another 81 malls in the pipeline while there is no green space left to go, he said.