More pickpocketing as crooks’ high season nears

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General News

The number of pickpocket offences is increasing – and police are bracing for another rise in figures as Austrians are flocking to shopping centres and Christmas markets.Federal police announced today (Tues) that they registered around 15,000 reported cases of thefts by pickpockets in the first nine months of this year. They stressed this was a […]

Shops experience ‘best 8th December in years’

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Business

Retail trade representatives are delighted about “sensational” revenue as hundreds of thousands of Austrians took the opportunity to go shopping on yesterday’s (Weds) national holiday.The 8th of December – which marks the Immaculate Conception of Mary – is traditionally one of the busiest days in the year for the retail trade sector as shops have […]

One in five want extended shopping hours

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Business

Almost 20 per cent of Austrians want shops to adopt longer business hours, it has been reported.A survey conducted by Viennese agency Karmasin for magazine Regal shows that 19 per cent of Austrians want a change of federal trade laws so stores are allowed to open longer than the current maximum 72 hours per week.Especially […]

Erste-backed mall breaks bright world record

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Business

A Romanian shopping centre into which Austrian Sparkassen Immobilien poured 200 million Euros has made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest indoor Christmas light display.Guinness World Records officials acknowledged the bid as a new world best after visiting the installation which features 449,658 lights at the Sun Plaza mall in […]

Lugner legal bid for Sunday shopping

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Business

A Viennese entrepreneur has revealed plans to launch legal action over the Austrian Sunday shopping ban.Richard Lugner, whose Lugner City shopping centre opened in 1990, said today (Tues) he had assigned a lawyer to file a complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court (VfGH) about current regulations.Federal law disallows shops of all kind to do business […]

Shoplifter commits suicide hours after arrest

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General News

A shoplifter caught making off with goods from a shopping centre in Parndorf later killed himself while in custody, it has emerged.Eisenstadt prison officials confirmed newspaper reports from today (Weds) that the 38-year-old Slovak was found dead seven hours after he was arrested and put in a holding cell.Prison authorities said the man hanged himself […]

Erste in €40mn support deal for Tvarna mall project

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Finance

A Northern Irish property firm is set to build a new shopping centre an hour’s drive from Austria after getting a multi-million Euro loan from Erste Bank’s Slovenska sporitelna.British media report today (Fri) that the Slovakian subsidiary of Vienna-headquartered Erste Bank teamed up with VUB bank – a Slovakian competitor owned by Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo […]

Woman kidnaps baby as mum tries on clothes

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General News

A woman from Salzburg was reunited with her baby five hours after the girl was kidnapped at a shopping centre.Nina Zwilling was in an H&M store in Salzburg’s Europark mall when she noticed that baby Nora was no longer in her cradle yesterday morning (Weds).The mother-of-three – who was also accompanied by her two-year-old boy […]

Signa buys Vienna’s IZD Tower

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Business

Signa Holding added another high-profile property to its portfolio this week as the real estate firm bought the IZD Tower in Vienna-Donaustadt.Signa boss Benko said yesterday (Weds) his company paid British fund Matrix 212.25 million Euros for the skyscraper located near Vienna International Centre. Matrix paid 247 million Euros when it acquired the building four […]

McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Parndorf to expand

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Business

Around 200 new jobs will be created when 20 to 25 new shops open at Parndorf’s McArthurGlen Designer Outlet next year.Thomas Reichenauer, company manager of the international shopping centre management group, said today (Fri): “We plan to invest between 20 and 25 million Euros. Twenty to 25 new shops will open on an additional 5,300 […]