I hate Sundays in Germany

They don't have any gas stations in Bamberg?


Is woolworths somewhere else different than the one here? our one sucks.

I must admit I love sundays, but living in Freising we are spoiled. If I really need some groceries I can pop off to the airport, where I can also do some shopping.

Shit - the day didn't work out as I'd planned yesterday and I wasn't able to go to the shops to buy the meat or potatoes for my roast today.

I slept in, had a late breakfast, I called my friends, I watched some TV. Now if I could only take my walk to some shops, so I could still buy that roast and cook it before going to the pub for a couple of pints later on...

just have the roast at the pub with a few pints, problem solved!

Another no to Sunday shopping here, I find it nice and peaceful on Sunday, if the shops were open then there would be a lot more traffic around and it would feel just like any other day of the week instead of a day to relax & do bugger all. I live in a fairly small town next to Heidelberg and even our rewe is open until 10pm, so unless you live in a very small town or village i'm sure there must be shops open late somewhere, and what about the train station?

Which pub would that be??

Possibly even the 21st.

That might take another 50 years or so at this rate

I think the important question is - why are some types of businesses allowed to open and others not? Is it fair on the workers who work in those industries?

The idea behind allowing certains shops to open and others not is that certain shops are either too important to be shut down (gas stations), should be available all the time due to the demand (bakeries who sell fresh rolls + bread; shops at the airport or railway station) or offer recreational activities (movies, pubs, restaurants...).

As for me, i'm used to it since i was born and raised here. Sometimes it bothers me too, but thats mostly when somehow i missed out on buying beer, food or toilet paper. Hate to pay the high prices at the gas station.

another important question is - why should we accept the government dictating to us when we should be relaxing and doing nothing and when we should be shopping, washing or doing other household chores?

Surely we can make these decision on our own...

Your freedom to mow the lawn on a sunday conflicts wit the right of others to have quiet and the lawmakers chose to give preference to quiet.
It's all about grey zones, there's rarely black and white.

Fair enough - but my right to either open as a business or shop in one does not conflict with your right to skip through the woods with your family...

quite a confict of opinions here , time to put it to the vote.
poll going up now.

Brilliant idea, congratulations! Fifteen existing threads on Sunday shopping are really not enough.

It's called being organized and planning ahead. Then you wouldn't run out of toilet paper at 7 o'clock Sunday morning.

ok scrap the poll , seems i cant start them.

I'm neither organised nor particularly good at planning ahead. Does that mean I should be excluded from being able to eat properly or wiping my arse 1 day out of every week?

The history of the Ladenschlussgesetz (store opening/closing hours law) shouldn't be confused with Ruhezeit or "quiet time" (which governs how people live in their own homes).

Oh, and the law was only meant to protect retail workers. Folks with jobs in other sectors, for example barber shops, were not so limited.

I love Sundays! No hustle, no bustle, just whining bitches that I can turn off with a click of the switch.

Can't wait for the Euro Cup to start. At least when they fall down and whine and bitch there is the chance of a penalty being invoked.

Except for their generally being shut on Mondays.

Yeah... the rest of us get penalised even when (especially if!) we don't fall down and whine and bitch. The good news, however, is that the whining and bitching is finally starting to have an effect.

Round-the-Clock Shopping Comes to Germany

Don't hold your breath that it will be universal Bipa, even now many shops don't open the full range of hours they could as there is no demand.

Judging by the ricockulus number of people who are at my local lidl on sundays...I'd say the demand is there.

I have no trouble with accepting that a shop owner has decided on his own store opening hours based on his analysis of local demand. That is how it should be! But having someone in Berlin (or Bonn) deciding when a shop in Balingen can open was quite rediculous.

There is going to be more demand in more lively urban areas for sure but even in Munich not all stores open all the times that they could.

I have no idea what "laundry" is - I got myself a bird for that sort of crap.

If you are looking for something to do on a sunday in Munich, and are lamenting over the lack of shops that are open, or the fact that you cannot mow the lawn, there is a great, legal solution - whorehouses have no silly catholic-rooted restrictions on sunday trading. Go fuck a whore. Much more fun than mowing the lawn, and then you can also start a thread on TT about how fucking insane it is that the krout government feels the need to dicate when you can or cannot go shopping, but is happy to let you pay money to sodomise an eastern european chick after sunday tea and cakes at grandma's house.

Cream Pie?

As usual, Don is right. The Leierkasten in Munich is open 24 hrs.

I think this is a good place for these posts.

sorry that was last night someone elses rant go me fired up over it again and i had just been yelled at for not getting milk , had to give something back and it wasnt gonna be the beer.

True - but currently most can't open at all the times they would.

That "most" should be some really Hazza.
The big department stores would and even some food retailers in the inner city, but not the majority of shops.

Whatever...just because they may or may not isn't a reason to prevent them from doing so. It's like the smoking ban - if you leave the choice up to the business owner, then they may decide to or not and is a preferable situation to the government foisting their arbitrary restrictions onto businesses.

Whether smoking ban or restricitons on trading hours, laws should be passed based on the knowledge of the probable outcome.

Smoking bans, OK, but in the knowledge that pubs will close.

Allow Sunday trading, OK, but in the knowledge this will increase the market share of the chain stores at the expense of other retailers.

We've been over this ad nauseum and I still don't believe that it's Sunday trading that has led to the demise of the small corner shops. Rather it's the fact that they cannot compete on price and range compared to Supermarkets.

Are you so weak willed you can't resist the call of shopping to persue hobby/sport if stores are open?

I hate the fact that you're not allowed to make so much noise on a sunday... but it's OK for the ooompa pooompa band for the Schützenfest to make a racket!

It's called music and you should go along to the fest and enjoy yourself. Shopping is probably the dullest thing on earth, yet you want to do more of it. Sundays are great in Germany, a complete contrast to every other day. I certainly don't want Germany to become a facsimile of America, like Britain is becoming. Being quite on a Sunday shows respect for other people, something that seems sadly lacking in Britain these days.

So to summarize your points: 1) Shopping is dull so people shouldn't be allowed to do it on sunday 2) Noise is rude to other people 3) You should go out to fests and make alot of noise on Sunday

I was awake at 3am Sunday morning. I suddenly realised that I needed a haircut and had to mow my lawn. I could do neither due to the laws here.

I tell you it is an absolute disgrace that I cannot do either of the above. It is restricting my freedom of choice. I do not give two hoots about the noise my petrol lawnmower makes, it should be my right to mow the lawn at 3am on Sunday. I have been away and have not had time to cut the lawn during "normal hours".

It is the same story with my needing a hair cut. I have not had time to have my haircut due to my poor organisational skills. Well, guess what, I could not find a single hairdresser that opens at 3am on Sunday morning. It is a national disgrace.

I may move to a country where I can get my haircut at 3am or where I can mow my lawn at 3am. A country where my freedom of choice is respected, not like this old-fashioned country.

A disgrace, an absolute disgrace!

p.s (why are the cows in the nearby fields exempt from making cow-like noise on a Sunday? It is just not right!!!)

I don't mind quiet Sundays.

But in my tiny town the shops stayed open until midnight this past Saturday (major event), and it was madness. We had wine fests and parades at other times of the year that didn't attract as many people. You couldn't even walk down the main street.

So, I agree that quiet Sundays are nice, but it's pretty clear to me that the Germans in my town are sheeps for shopping. If it takes the shops to be closed for them to stay home and be with their families, that's pretty sad.

Yes, because forbidding things at 3 am when people are sleeping every day is just like arbitrarily picking a day and arbitrarily saying its family time.

I never realized getting your haircut made so much noise.

Leave canaryman alone, he is a busy person and has to work weird hours!!!

Must say that having the branch of Müller-Drogerie open in Munich main station has been an absolute boon for me personally. Have been part way through a load of washing, have run low on fabric conditioner for the next load, so can take the u-bahn 3 stops, pick some up at a normal price and be back to run another load.
Likewise with baking foil. There's a Toppits foil I love and while I buy in bulk, sometimes I go a bit baketastic and run out. My neighbours use paper, which I've found out when I've previously asked. Now I don't need to.

However, I do still speak to all my neighbours though. It's the kiddy on the first floor's birthday today, so I got her a pressie. Can remember when they brought her home from the hospital 5 years ago! Eeek!

Not everyone is sleeping, what about night-shift workers, doctors, nurses, military. Why should I not be able to mow my lawn at 3am. It is my lawn, I am awake so it should be my right to mow my lawn.

If I wish to have my haircut at 3am then there should be someone that is available to service my desire to do so.

I tell you, Germany should come into the the 21st century.

It is a disgrace that we are forced to live in such a medieval society.

(By the way, there is no point to opening the supermarkets or shops here on a Sunday! All the food is diabolical and the clothes are all crap...but that is another subject altogether)

Do not get me started about Churches being open on a Sunday...another disgrace!!!

Even in Ireland/UK poeple would complain at that

If a haircut place can feasably operate at 3 am and make money you are right, they should not legally be prohibited from doing so.

Noise laws are not the same and exist even in horribly loud societies like America where the evil grocery stores force you to shop 24/7 instead of persuing your hopes and dreams.

My hopes and dreams often include being able to buy beer after 8 p.m.

No gas stations in the place you live?

We should close those too, people don't need to drive on weekends simply because they want to, why should we turn to America. The irresistable siren call of the local Esso is too much for me to withstand.