@hikari@social.noyu.me it still surprises me

Denmark and Germany are so similar, so I expected this to be the same too, but no

on the other hand, Danish stores close strangely early on weekends

@hikari Last year I was on some ultrasound training in Germany with a coworker. The battery in his car died, and finding a place that sold replacement batteries and was open at convenient times turned out to be impossible – he had to sacrifice his lunch break.

@hikari and here I’m just annoyed that it’s illegal to buy groceries on holidays

imagine if it was illegal to buy groceries on sundays too…

@hikari actually I should clarify this because it probably sounds like a joke but it’s not

in most cities here it’s illegal to sell groceries on statutory holidays. the BIAs (business improvement areas, like… chambers of commerce I think?) lobby really hard for that, to drive more business to restaurants.

so we have stores that are open 24/7 but not holidays. we have stores that are open on holidays but you’re not allowed to buy groceries at. and we have stores that say “fuck the rules”, sell groceries anyway, and presumably pay the fine every time

it is, frankly, sort of absurd

@demize it's effectively illegal to sell groceries in germany on sundays and official holidays, with some exceptions (train stations)