Although acceptance of the public holiday as a shopping day is growing, 57% of Austrians are still against shops being open on 8 December. 24% want to shop, which is more than in the previous year (15%). Spending this year totals around €200 million and therefore corresponds to a "normal" shopping day during the week in the run-up to Christmas, despite many shops being closed.

The results are interesting when broken down by province. While one in three consumers in Vienna goes shopping on St Mary's Day, "only" one in five consumers in the other federal states do so. Spending in the Viennese retail sector on 8 December is correspondingly high at around € 76 million, although the following also applies in Vienna: St Mary's Day is not a "fifth Advent shopping Saturday" in terms of spending.

Dr Ernst Gittenberger also commented on this in the ORF Wien heute interview on 8 December.