Dear all,
This happens to me all the time. I’ll be walking around an area of town I visit regularly when suddenly I’ll be forced to stop and gape at an empty space between two buildings. I know I’ve walked down this street dozens of times, maybe had coffee around the corner almost as often, and yet I have to ask myself, “what did the building that once stood there actually look like?” Why can’t I even remember what colour it was? Why did I never really notice it before?
With Germany slowly but surely demolishing laws which set the number of hours per day which stores can be open, this is the feeling I think I will get should the country go all the way and allow Sunday shopping across the board, everywhere.
For most of the time when I was still living in Canada, Sunday was still a day when you couldn’t go shopping or have a drink in the bar. In Vancouver, those who were desperate for a beer but hadn’t the foresight to stock up the day before would drive over the line to Point Roberts, that little finger of the US of A attached to Canada but sticking out below the 49th parallel.
This may have been an inconvenience for some, but for me it was heaven. Finally, one day out of the week when there was so little traffic you could take your bike for a long spin and not have to clean the grit out off your face at the end of it. Finally, one day out of the week when people seemed to have the time to get to where they wanted to go, when we all seemed to have time to visit friends, hang out, play games in the park, go for a walk. Without the traffic of employees heading to work, delivery trucks dropping off wares and shoppers driving to and fro, the noise level in the city dropped noticeably, too.
That all changed with Vancouver hosting a world exposition in 1986. Oh, we can’t have Sunday closures anymore, they all said. They’ll think we’re backward or something. After the circus had come and gone the stores stayed open on Sundays, and for me, the day was never the same. I go back now and can really feel how the peaceful atmosphere of this one day per week is truly gone for good.
That’s one of the reasons why I like living in my backward corner of the world. It’s like stepping back into a time when Sunday had its own feel to it, its own special atmosphere.
I know I’m a dinosaur and the whole of Germany will probably one day be one big shopper’s paradise like the business interests wish it already were. That’s why I try to take advantage of Sundays as much as I can. I never know if I’ll ever get a chance do something like this again: play street hockey with my kid on a supermarket parking lot normally choked with cars.
Wishing you a great Sunday,
Ian
© 2007 lettershometoyou
I’m always torn about the store opening policies. On Sundays, I love it. On Saturdays when there is nothing remaining in the store and 20 people grabbing for what there is in the little narrow aisles, I hate it and wish the traffic could be spread over 2 days. Even keeping Sundays closed and having later hours on weekdays might ease the Saturday problem – if they were open until 10 I think we could avoid Saturday entirely with evening shopping. It’s hard to get it done before 8 on weekdays, though. (For us.)
I know what you’re saying about the crowded stores, but it used to be worse. I was here for three weeks in summer, ‘95 and was struck by how full the stores were, even mid-week. With the gradual lengtheningof store opening hours that’s no longer the case.
So you are originally from Germany, or just there right now?
I think the problem is the cars, not Sunday shopping. How about universal car-free day on Sundays? You can still go shopping – take a bike, a bus, walk. If you live somewhere you can’t do without a car… well, better to start thinking about how to deal with that now than later.
Munich,
I agree, though how to go about convincing people to give up their cars one day a week?
sandman,
I’m actually Canadian, been here 10 years. The street hockey was a big tip-off, eh?!
It’s hard to remember just how different Sunday used to be here in the UK. Quieter, more relaxed, yes, but sometimes just a little over-powering in its nothingness. I used to love the Tony Hancock sketch set on a Sunday afternoon – it seemed to sum up the dreariness of the day.
Now, it’s just another day like all the rest. Sometimes I miss the dreariness!
All the best
Bill Blunt
Bill,
Must admit I don’t know Tony Hancock or the sketch. But when you say that, “now it’s just another day like all the rest” you are at the heart of the matter.
The hell with shopping on sunday, how some decent stores period. shopping is terrible in Germany, surly service poor selection horrible (but slightly better) shopping hours. Try finishing all your shopping before 6pm on a weekday and noon on a Saturday. It was quite the culture shock when we first moved.
I Iived there for 7 years and the first time I went home and walked into one of the new Loblaws super centers I just about feel over. I felt like a refuge from some communist country.
I also could live without Sunday shopping.
Rob in Madrid
btw are you on Toytown? http://www.toytowngermany.com Germanys largest English expat community
Hiya Rob,
I take it you left sometime before 1997? It used to be pretty tight, but now you can shop til 8pm every night – closed Sunday still – and some stores stay open til 10. I think this compromise is pretty fair.
I agree that the selection could be better, but really, who needs 15 different kinds of corn flakes?
Yup, I’m on toytown! You too?
We moved to Germany in 1999 and what a culture shock it was, small stores that booted you out at 6pm!!!!!! They did change the shopping hours a few months after we arrived and and I’ve heard they gone 7-24 since then or almost still no Sunday shopping. but I don’t miss that one.
General consensus with most expats is shopping sucks in Germany. Poor selection and poor service. ?But that’s a small price to pay to live in Europe. I really wouldn’t want to live back in Canada.