All Carrefour supermarkets in Brussels to open on Sundays

Following an agreement between trade unions and management, all of Carrefour’s stores in and around the Brussels region will be open on Sundays from mid-January onwards.

About 600 franchise shops under the Carrefour Market and Express brands were already open on Sundays, but the remaining 16 - five hypermarkets and 11 Carrefour supermarkets - will now join them.

“Is it a good agreement? Certainly not, but it’s necessary: sales figures remain under pressure and the context remains difficult,” BBTK union secretary Lindsey Verhaeghe said.

Specifically, this concerns the hypermarkets in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Kraainem, Evere, Drogenbos and Strombeek-Bever, and the supermarkets at Marius Renard, Gatti, Bascule, Molière, Boondaal, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Etterbeek, Woluwe Shopping, City 2, Helmet and Vilvoorde.

Sunday hours will be from 8.00 until 12.00 and existing staff will be deployed on a voluntary basis with a 50% wage supplement, according to Wouter Parmentier of ACV Puls union.

“By extending Sunday opening hours, the retail chain will be able to further strengthen customer satisfaction and its position in the retail market, and it will do so in a manner that respects all colleagues involved,” Carrefour Belgium said in a response to the decision.

Retailers in Belgium are required to close for an uninterrupted 24-hour period once a week - not necessarily a Sunday. Carrefour's decision to open on Sunday mornings will mean that stores are likely to not reopen until midday on Mondays.

There will also be an extension of contracts up to 28 hours for employees currently working fewer hours than this, a meal voucher increase of €1.50 from March 2026, and fixed free periods in exchange for the increased flexibility required of employees.

Management for Lidl and Aldi told RTBF that opening on Sundays is not something currently under consideration, though they are keeping an eye on the market.

Competitor Colruyt, Belgium’s largest supermarket chain, said it was "not economically feasible" for them to do so.

“A customer who shops in a Belgian supermarket on Sunday spends an average of €27,” a spokesperson said.

“On other days of the week, that figure is €35, and at some Colruyt stores it is even €70. With an average shopping trolley value of €27, Colruyt cannot open its shops on Sundays profitably.”

Competitor Delhaize, on the other hand, has been open for limited hours on Sundays since 2023.

Though it did not have figures to share regarding the profitability of those days, a spokesperson claimed the revenue has become equivalent to Saturdays.

“They know how to open on Sundays and they know how to do it profitably,” said Pierre-Alexandre Billiet, chief executive of retail magazine Gondola.

“We were a country where Sunday was still ‘sacred’. Delhaize’s franchising drew consumers away from their sofas and into the shops. It was an economic and cultural change that happened very quickly and was underestimated by its competitors.”

But Billiet also noted that Sunday afternoons are significantly less profitable than mornings.

“It's important to note that opening on Sundays also requires flexibility in management on other days of the week when there are fewer people,” he added.