The pandemic will have an impact on the retail industry because we can see this shift to online shopping. After restrictions have lifted shopping centres will still remain empty. It will be very difficult to bring people back to out-of-town shopping centres in particular.
This has coincided with the shutting down of many related businesses across the supply chain because of this change of shopping habit. The courts have also changed during the pandemic and we no longer attend them in person. Everything is via Zoom, Teams and the like. Nobody is allowed to enter the courts and this is a huge change in Poland. It’s actually a real nightmare for us, having to do almost all our work virtually.
Tourism has probably suffered the most. While the border is closed, the queuing in airports is very time consuming. Most people are no longer going abroad but visiting Polish resorts on the Baltic coast or in the mountains. In that respect it’s very similar to the UK. People are staying at home and taking a holiday in Poland, but then everything becomes very crowded and very expensive.
Regarding working conditions, there’s a lot of home working right now, similar to everywhere else. This has also exposed a lot of businesses to cyber-attacks. Also, with government aid to businesses there’s an issue around how and when you can dismiss employees – it’s all very difficult to navigate around. I know that a lot of businesses are really finding things tough at the moment.
