«Dear customers, the store will close in 30 minutes (everything – no). For the payment of the products, please go to the cash registers.» How we spent the last 30 minutes of the H&M Unirii life, a landmark of the economic growth of the last 14 years. Romania will return to sustained economic growth when Hermes comes, and the Unirea store will return to business

Friday, July 18, 2025, 9.30 pm, the last 30 minutes of the H&M store on the ground floor of the Unirea store in the center of the capital. After 14 years, H&M, who was on three floors, closed «permanently», as it is said in the announcement placed on the entrance door. For many, the H&M Unirea means nothing, but for me it was a landmark of economic growth and the beginning of an unprecedented social change for Romania. The H&M Unirea store opened on March 26, 2011, one day after opening the first H&M store in Romania in the Plaza mall. The arrival of the Swedish dress retailer on the Romanian market was a big event, first of all because it came, and secondly that it came in a period when we licking our wounds after the economic crisis of 2009/2010, which meant a lot of tension in the economy and many questions. Because the economic situation was complicated – salary cuts in private companies started in 2009, cutting salaries in the budget sector by 25% and VAT increase from 20% to 24% (what coincidence !!!), with many departures of Romania to work (over a million) through Europe and through the United States because in the country the companies were restructured and the H&M was in the country – from the end of the tunnel 'and brought some kind of hope that I could get out of the crisis. Since then, with the exception of 2020, when the Covid, the Romanian economy, measured by GDP appeared, has increased more than three times (by 343%, more precisely, from a GDP of 513 billion lei to a GDP of 1,760 billion lei in 2024). This is an increase in nominal value, because in real value the increase was 44%. If in 2011 the average salary was 1,478 lei, ie 360 euros, now the average net salary reached 5,500 lei, ie 1,080 euros. In lei the increase was 372%, and in euros three times. Then the rate was 4.1 lei for one euro, now it is 5.07 lei/euros, which means an increase of only 22% in 14 years, which is remarkable. Inflation was then 5.79%, compared to 5.6%, the latest data from May, so the same. H&M does not leave the Romanian market, only closed the store from Unirea, the commercial complex that after the death of the owner Dan Adamescu and the internal struggles in the family fell year from year from the point of view of the retail, even though they benefit from the best commercial positioning of a mall in Bucharest. Now, by hiring a consulting company -Colliers -, the son of Dan Adamescu, the one who now controls the Unirea store, tries a commercial return process. The emergence of the great international fashion retailers – Inditex (Zara, plus the other brands), of H&M, but also of other brands – changed the outfit and color of corporate clothes, that class of employees who made a career in Romania. Zara, H&M, Mango etc. There are brands of clothing and footwear, but they are more than that, they have the ability to beautify social life and mood, at least those who carry these brands. As I said, H&M was the beginning of a new economic growth and an unprecedented social change, at least in the big cities. If in 2009 I had an economic collapse of 7%, in 2010 of 1.6%, in 2011 I marked a return of the economy, with an additional 2.3%and with an unprecedented salaries. The purchasing power has increased significantly due to a much lower inflation than the economic growth and salaries and an extremely stable lion/euro course. At that time, the interest in lei were much higher at the level of loans than the level now, which is considered increasing. Today's economy is different from the economy of 14 years ago, today Romania is different from Romania in 2011, at least so I think, from Bucharest, from the middle of the capital. If in 2011 many young people left Romania because private companies were restructured, many are now trying to return to the country as entrepreneurs, considering that it is worth returning to Romania because we have reached a level near Italy, maybe Spain, near Portugal, over Hungary. The Italians ask their question what they will do if the Romanians leave them from the peninsula. But the question is whether we can still have a similar park, at least from an economic point of view, in the next 14 years. As a bitter coincidence, the VAT increases again, the government is trying to make some state restructuring, the pensions and wages are free, it is trying to bring public finances on a floating line, as it happened in 2010, during Basescu and Boc when, as an extreme measure, the VAT was increased. Even now we are far from the same situation – the financial markets did not borrow if the government did not order in the budget situation. The Bolojan government must implement three packages of tax austerity quite quickly. The question is what comes after, in order not to let the economy decrease. I lost a lot of economic engines and ran out of gas. If the Bolojan Government does not come in the coming months with a few economic relaunch measures to change the mood in the economy, it will be very difficult to take 2026 from the point of view of public finances, from a political point of view, from an economic and business point of view. If the arrival of H&M represented a light, a point that has returned the economic decrease, at least as perception, who knows, maybe if now comes Hermes, Dior or who knows the other big brand, we will see the beginning of a new period of economic growth again. But first the Unirea store must return to life.

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