Food retailers introduce priority shopping hours for elderly

Food retailers Lidl and Kaufland have decided to introduce shopping hours exclusively for the elderly at their stores in Slovakia. Lidl spokesman Tomas Bezak explained that it will reserve a time window for them starting at 1 p.m. and ending at 2.30 p.m. The measure will apply daily and to each of the 142 Lidl stores in the country. However, Lidl doesn't have enough capacities to monitor whether the measure will actually be observed, so it asks consumers for understanding and consideration. Kaufland also recommends that its elderly customers should visit its stores during the exact same time window. Spokeswoman Lucia Langova stated that it can't enforce compliance with the measure either, so it's asking its customers to reschedule their shopping visits accordingly. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has officially introduced priority shopping hours between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. at grocery stores for people older than 65.