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From: tjsmedley@watmum.UUCP
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Sunday shopping hours (again).
Message-ID: <843@watmum.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Mar-87 09:04:42 EST
Article-I.D.: watmum.843
Posted: Thu Mar  5 09:04:42 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Mar-87 20:56:35 EST
References: <5626@watmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: tjsmedley@watmum.UUCP (Trevor J Smedley)
Distribution: ont
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Lines: 49

In article <5626@watmath.UUCP> Ray Butterworth writes:
>
>It seems that on week nights, almost all shops are closed by 5:00
>or 6:00.  On Thursday nights they remain open until 9:00, but on
>Fridays they still close early.  Each city has one week night on
>which they stay open late.  Thursday is Sydney's night.

This is much the same as the situation in Germany. There it is
regulated by law.

>I was somewhat surprised that there wasn't any Friday night shopping
>in the area, but my hosts tried to reassure me by pointing out that
>lately many of the shops have been staying open as late as 3:00 or
>4:00 on Saturday afternoons.  (Don't even think about Sundays.)

Most of the stores in Germany closed about 1:00 (that's pm not am) on
Saturdays, except for the first Saturday in each month when they stay
open until 5 or 6. Many stores (and businesses) especially in smaller
areas also closed at lunch time for an hour. This sort of set-up is
perfectly suited to the wife-at-home-who-does-all-the-shopping way of
life. On a different but related note, the size of the fridges is also
well suited to this lifestyle. They are in general much too small to
hold more than a day or two of groceries, so you can't go shopping
once a week and stock up. A lot of people went shopping every day, but
since the stores are only open during working hours, the person who
does the shopping can't work.

>One thing I really did like about shopping in Australia (and Singapore
>and many other non-NorthAmerican countries) is the prices.  When I
>buy something in Ontario its price is say $4.99.  That means that
>I actually have to pay $5.34 with tax.  That's a $5, a $.25, a $.05,
>and 4 $.01s.  When I buy the same thing elsewhere its price is $5.00.
>That means that I have to give them a $5 bill and that's it.  The
>concept is so simple it is amazing.  Have you ever wondered how many
>man-hours of labour go into counting change every year in this country?

This is also the way things are in Germany, but (aside from the fact
that I also hate counting change) I'm not sure that it's such a good
idea. Here the tax is added on top of the price so you are always
aware of how much the Government is getting (I know, there are other
taxes that we don't see, but at least we do see this one). There's no
way that the Government can raise Provincial Sales Taxes without
everyone noticing. I think that when the tax is included in the price
it makes it far too easy to raise them -- look at liquor and gas taxes
for example. It would be nice if merchants could price things so that
the prices work out to something reasonable after the tax is added
though.

Trevor