Thread with 27 posts
jump to expanded post
had to tell a friend visiting Berlin that no she cannot buy a 100W USB-C charger on a sunday in germany lmao
this particular thing probably makes this huge german city noticeably less convenient than a small swedish city 14% of the time (but for like 22% of your leisure time)
update how the fuck is Saturn Alexanderplatz open on a sunday. is it an exclave of the train station
do they get diplomatic immunity. can i apply for the republic of deutsche bahn to grant me asylum if i go inside
@hikari You can, but you gotta know how to dribble the system. And well you have to be a little lucky. But since people on kleinanzeigen probably don't work today they might be willing to meet up with you for a little transaction:
https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/100-w-dual-usb-c-netzteil-adapter-ladegeraet/2881401815-173-9677
@hikari many Dutch people in the border regions visit German supermarkets because it's cheaper.
Except on Sundays, when Germans flock to Dutch supermarkets instead. Because they're, you know, open.
@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
@trif this is true in sweden also but maybe to a lesser extent? i think a lot of places try to be kinder on workers over weekends but germany is just particularly strict about it
@trif @hikari@social.noyu.me And here comes Poland. We introduced no shopping on sundays few years ago to huge protests from most people. But there are still days that are exceptions usually before big holidays, but still it's a bit odd to have a mixed system
@hikari unless you know that one kiosk that opens the door at the back on a sunday for some tax free extra income.
justberlinthings
@hikari they might not have quality chargers tho
@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.
@jernej__s yup. things tend to close at inconvenient times even on weekdays
@hikari The weird thing is that in Slovenia, you can pick up a battery at most petrol stations.
@hikari where I live all stores are closed on Sundays too, but there are exceptions, specifically: the owner of the store can work on Sundays (but no employees can).
Some smaller self owned stores use this, but the owner of the grocery store in my neighbourhood has decided that he doesn’t want to spend his weekends working either and instead decided to just leave the store open with no one inside (self-checkout). a lot of trust considering the fact that I live right next to a club/concert venue
@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)
@demize but more specifically it's illegal to pay people to work
@hikari yeah you see I hate this much less than “the BIAs have bribed local politicians to ensure restaurants get all the business on holidays”
@demize well you see
restaurants are exempted
@hikari oh.
@astraleureka @demize i mean people who don't pay people to work tend not to care very much about employment laws