Shifting mandatory closures to weekdays: Implications for retail policy

This study finds that shifting mandatory closing days to weekdays increased hypermarket sales across the regions examined, without a corresponding decline in other offline retail formats such as traditional markets. The gains appear to reflect a shift of consumer spending from online to offline channels rather than reallocation within the offline sector. The mandatory closure policy has long rested on the assumption that offline retailers compete primarily with one another, hence its traditional focus on weekends. Given the growing fluidity of spending between the two channels and the wide variation in local market conditions across regions, the weekday shift should be actively explored.