Registering the real value of retailing

Date: 21/11/1996

By Simon Coss

JACQUES Dopchie is feeling neglected.

He is president of EuroCommerce, an organisation representing the Union's retail industry - a sector which accounts for 15&percent; of the EU's workforce and yet, according to Dopchie, is not even officially recognised by the European Commission.

“Our sector has an important role to play - in many ways we are at least as important as the manufacturing industry. Yet when the Commissioners meet among themselves, who represents us? We would like to see a directorate-general for commerce. It would not need a big staff. The role could be delegated to one person but it would mean that within the Commission there would be someone with our problems in mind,” he says.

Dopchie admits that part of the blame for the sector's lack of representation rests with retailers themselves, who have been slow to organise into a coherent lobbying force.

“Before EuroCommerce was set up in 1993, there was no single organisation to speak for our interests and we certainly lost out because of that. In EU politics, if you want people to listen to you then you must make sure that your voice is heard,” he says.

The EuroCommerce president also points to an interesting linguistic quirk in the Union's treaties which has caused problems for his sector.

“In English, the word 'industry' is a very broad term which encompasses manufacturing and retail activity. However, in French the term industrie is much more specific and refers explicitly to traditional sectors such as steel-working or coalmining. The term is similarly translated in German and I feel that Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann views his responsibilities from a German perspective,” he explains.

Dopchie argues that to get round such misunderstandings, the term 'industry and commerce' should be inserted at relevant points in the treaties.

He acknowledges that commerce continues to suffer from an image problem, with many people still feeling that working in a shop is not a 'real' job.

Retailers do not create goods like manufacturers do, they do not grow food like farmers, nor do they recover the earth's natural resources like coal- miners. Rather, they gather all of these goods together and sell them.

“Sometimes we seem to be viewed as less important than our noble colleagues in industry. Yet we really do provide an important service. Without retailers, how would citizens obtain all of the goods that are produced? It would be impossible to visit farms and factories all over the world each time you wanted to do your weekly shopping,” he says.

Not surprisingly, as someone who speaks for employers, Dopchie warns against over-regulation of Europe's labour markets.

Retail is a growth sector with a potential for creating wealth and employment Union-wide, he argues. If they are to fulfil their potential, it is vital that retailers are not over-burdened by restrictive rules.

“If employers want to take on part-time shop assistants and are told they must guarantee employment for that person for life, then they simply will not bother,” he insists.

“We must live in the real world. The commercial environment is very volatile and competitive, changing from one day to the next. Retailers must have the flexibility to deal with this. We will, of course, try to do everything possible to safeguard employees' jobs, but we prefer to do this voluntarily rather than through legislation.”

Retailers will be in the front line when the Union starts to adopt the euro in 1999, and Dopchie has some practical advice for civil servants and politicians charged with orchestrating the change-over.

Rather than obliging shopkeepers to 'double-price' their goods in the run up to the transition (by marking both the national currency and the euro equivalent), he argues that it would be simpler to provide consumers with cheap calculators.

“The customer would tap in the national price, press a button and get the euro equivalent. The whole scheme could be paid for by selling advertising space on the back of the calculators,” he explains.

Dopchie also questions the logic of changing over on 1 January 1999.

“This has to be the worst time to introduce a major change in retailing style. Our sales staff will be exhausted after the chaos of the Christmas rush. The last thing they need as the new year sales season starts is to have to do thousands of on-the-spot currency conversions,” he insists.

“A more sensible approach would, for example, be to make the change between October and November 1998.”