AllThingsGerman.net

Hessen has changed it’s laws on shop opening hours. From 1st December onwards, shops can stay open round the clock from Monday to Saturday, Sundays and Bank Holidays are generally only allowed for six hours – and only then after the main church services.

Well, living in Hessen I’m waiting to see if any of the shops in Oberursel extend their hours. In the town centre the shops shut on Saturday at 1pm at the moment, even though they could stay open a lot longer. So maybe this new law won’t make that much difference and only one or two large supermarkets will stay open any longer.

One large shopping centre, “Main-Taunus-Zentrum”, is trialling longer hours in December, so maybe we will go there and try out the late-night shopping.

We’re used to the 24-hours supermarkets in England and it’s always a highlight of our trips there to go out shoppinig in the middle of the night to stock up on the things we want to bring back to Germany with us.

Chancellor Merkel has suggested that employees should have a share of the profits of their employers. She has charged her social minister to come up with suggestions how this could work.

I have come across this sort of thing in large companies – where the bonus depends on the profit. If the results are bad, then you get less bonus – fair enough.

But sometimes you have to ask yourself why the results are so bad when everyone is doing a good job.

I have also come across the situation where a profit was made, but the bonus was still low because the profit was not considered to be big enough!