States Pressing for Right to Set Shopping Hours

Shopping in the United States is a 24/7 activity. Now, some German officials want to make it a 24/6 possibility here.

The idea of 24/6 - 24 hours a day, six days a week - represents one of the latest plans aimed at unlocking the legal padlock placed on store owners in Germany. The idea came to light as the debate about the long-simmering issue gained new life late last week. In a meeting on Friday, the legislative chamber that represents the states unanimously urged the federal parliament to give them the authority to set store hours.

“The states should be allowed to regulate the things that they can regulate themselves,“ said Erwin Teufel, the premier of Baden-Württemberg, the state that is leading the latest effort.

Shortly before the meeting, a spokesman for the Social Ministry in Lower Saxony explained just what officials in the northwestern state would like to do: Stores in the state would be allowed to remain open 24 hours a day, six days a week, and the only restrictions would apply to Sundays.

The debate grows out of a ruling that Germany's top court issued in June. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe upheld a law that prohibits stores from staying open past 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays or on Sundays and public holidays. But the court also said the federal government could give Germany's states the power to overhaul store opening hours.

Despite Friday's call by the legislative chamber known as the Bundesrat, shoppers still will have to wait a while before they can rush off to the store at midnight. The German parliament still must consider the issue. And resistance is already being expressed to any change.

Klaus Brandner, the spokesman for economic issues in the Social Democratic parliamentary group, said new changes in the law were made just a year ago. “There is no pressing issue on the agenda,“ he said during a radio interview.

Outside the parliament, the service union verdi, which represents retail workers, remains adamantly opposed to any changes. “Employees frequently get no leisure time in the evenings anyway,“ Margret Mönig-Rahne, a union vice president, said in a television interview.

The notion of loosening Germany's rigid shopping hours has been debated for decades. The law was created in 1956 and has undergone a number of changes since then. In 1958, stores were allowed to extend their hours on one Saturday a month in a change that became known as “long Saturday.“ In 1996, stores were allowed to open until 8 p.m. on weekdays and until 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Last year, the Saturday hours were extended to 8 p.m. A blanket ban applies to shopping on Sundays, but there are some exemptions.