Saturday in West Germany--Race Is On

On Saturday mornings across West Germany, millions of people enter a frantic race to finish their shopping before stores shut down for the weekend.

It’s West German law that stores must close by 2 p.m. on Saturdays, remain closed on Sundays and shut down by 6:30 p.m. on weekdays.

“It seems to be part of our mentality to strive for perfect, clear-cut and all-encompassing regulations,” Thomas Schlier, a spokesman for the National Consumers Organization and a longtime proponent of flexible shopping hours, said with a sigh.

“It’s a madhouse,” Saturday shopper Christal Sudau of Bonn said. “It’s unbelievably inconvenient for most people, and yet they don’t do anything about it.”

Rigid 30-Year Law

For 30 years, rigid retail laws have virtually dictated that West German shoppers spend early Saturday hurrying to fill grocery carts, fighting for parking places and battling for counter space in an effort to beat the mandatory closing time.

Local authorities are allowed to permit shopkeepers to stay open late on the first Saturday of each month, but few localities do it.

Recently, however, some relief has been extended.

In July, the federal government passed a law allowing shops near train stations in cities of more than 200,000 people to stay open later. Stores in airports have long been exempt from normal closing times.

Mall Finds Loophole

In Stuttgart, city authorities have exempted shops in an underground mall. The shop owners found a loophole in local laws and convinced authorities that later opening times at the mall--a favorite hang-out for loiterers after closing--would benefit public order.

The Free Democratic Party, the junior partner in the federal government coalition, has pledged to press for more flexible hours after elections in January.

“This is by no means a dead theme for us,” party spokesman Wolfgang Fischer said. “We intend to again make this an issue within the coalition after the election.”

Consumer and entrepreneurial groups have pledged to redouble their efforts against the shopping laws, among the strictest in Europe.

Union Renews Debate

The Economic Union, a nationwide entrepreneurs’ organization, renewed debate on the issue in July by releasing a poll claiming that 75% of West Germans wanted to change the shopping hours.

The study questioned 11,500 West Germans in 60 cities, and only 20% of them opposed change.

“It showed most people are clearly fed up with the current laws,” Wolfram Schmuck, spokesman for the Bonn-based lobbying group, said.

However, West Germany’s major labor unions and most retail and store owners’ organizations have banded together in an unusual alliance to oppose any change in shopping laws.

Political Support

Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s conservative Christian Democratic Union depends on small-business owners, including store owners, for political support. The opposition Social Democrats, who governed throughout the 1970s, are dependent on the big unions.

Neither party has campaigned for a change in shopping hours and neither is likely to.

Supporters of change argue that shop owners support the strict store closing hours only to avoid competition.