That is the shame of it. people who live near a border to another EC country can drive there at 11Pm and buy some kippers of whatever they like. Those german unions need to be dragged into the 21st century.
First of all, it isn't only Germany (so you can't necessarily just drive across the border).
Second, Germany (and other countries) are getting better, albeit way too slowly.
In Germany, it used to be that you couldn't buy fresh bread Sunday morning (which happens, for all the logical reasons, to be the absolute best day of the week for bakers). Today, that's at least possible.
In Denmark, "small" stores (defined by revenue) can stay open for as long as they please, while larger stores are still severely limitted - although not as much as was previously the case.
One odd side effect of the revenue-limit is that NEW stores (even huge ones) can stay open e.g. on Sundays (which is otherwise not generally permitted for larger stores), since they have not yet had a full year of registered income. Furthermore, if they time their opening correctly, such that they just barely miss the revenue limit for the year (e.g. 6 months in if the revenue was twice the allowed limit), you can actually keep the "small" status for well over a year.
I've always argued that stores should pair up and switch every X months, in effect starting over. This would allow them to retain the "small" status indefinitely.
-fyo |
