In Zurich almost everything is closed on Sundays, even my hotel restaurant. There is one massive underground shopping mall clustered at the railway station, where for obvious reasons ("travelers") there is a Sunday shopping exemption. I believe this is by far the largest mall in Zurich and of course it was open. The ugliness of the mall, and the inconvenience of the low ceilings, illustrates just how much Sunday shopping is worth. (That is why one of the world’s wealthiest cities, and a pretty one at that, has such a monstrosity for shopping.) Small entrepreneurs cannot compete with this (chain-laden) mall on Sundays, so I wonder if the hours restriction even favors small business on net. The legal restrictions on outworking the competition also help explain why immigrants to Switzerland don’t move up the economic ladder as well as many American immigrants do.
Free Swiss shopping, free it now.
As a German I am also inconvenienced by these kinds of restrictions. However, there might just be room for an argument: Years ago, I saw an American sociologist on TV stating that they found that couples with no common day off were more likely to divorce soon. I have never seen the paper, though.
Judging by that last line the recent trip to UC obviously had an effect on you, too.
If these laws were really just reflections of cultural norms–as I’ve heard claimed–then aren’t they simply irrelevant? What could be the danger of scrapping them?
I suspect we have another Baptist–check that, Calvinist–and bootlegger situation at play.
Thomas: are you implying that, if the store is open, you can’t keep yourself away from it? If so, this is a problem of personal self-discipline, which should not be remedied by legislation.
Blindglobe: oh, cursed “work slavery” of the “masses!” Those trying so egregiously to simply “get ahead” should be sent to the back of the line by the magnanimous State!
The value of leisure clustering depends on the type of leisure: a walk in the outdoors, for instance, is in my opinion made less valuable if everyone else wants to do it at the same time.
Sundays?
Go to Europe in August, even funerals have to wait until september.During the heatwave bodies where at homes for weeks.Almost everything is closed.
Why Sundays? If were Jew I would prefer Saturdays.I guess would it is the same for Muslims.Im agnostic so i prefer Mondays for rest,
In Spain and Italy i saw latinamericans inmigrants working on sundays.Their shop were full of people.I heard a shopowner at the tv saying they dind care while only Latinamericans shopped there but now even spanish were shopping on sundays there
It’s things like the Sunday restrictions that make it hard to take cities like Zurich seriously. Such restrictions speak volumes about the nature of the culture.
“The ugliness of the mall”
And the just so story falters on the fact that right in TC’s backyard is the gawdawful Crystal City Mall. Ever been trapped there in between meetings?
Better cultural criticism please.
It would be astonishing if TC or another blogging economist actually discovered another country that does anything better than the u.s.! Really, jingoism disguised as economic reasoning is jingoism just the same……most of the built pace and “culture” of northern virginia is virtually identical to Knoxville or any other exurb…..more hideous than anything our european coursins could ever contrive…….Next you will be telling us that good ol merican
architechture is the envy of the world…….Its ugly but efficient and thus speaks to the productive spririt of the amercacn psyche and thus superior to those overindulgent europeans with their ideas of something whacky known as aesthetics……….
As a counter-weight to the expats who have commented here so far, let me say that I lived in Germany and Switzerland for many years, and while there were many aspects of the experience that I loved, the shopping-hour-restrictions were among the most frustrating aspects. Nowdays, thankfully, these restrictions have been severely undermined by all sort of loopholes supposedly targeting “travelers”, but 15-20 years ago they were ironclad, and I remember many a week-end of TP and food rationing because no one in our shared appartment of students had gone shopping before 5:00 p.m. on Friday.
And you don’t have to look for explanations beyond paternalism. Frankly, the notion that elites should guide society through paternalistic laws is broadly accepted in Europe, not least among the elites. You can certainly tell stories that cast that paternalism in a positive light (that’s why it’s called paternalism!), but you can also tell stories that cast it in a negative light. For example, the shoping-hour-restrictions are one of the things that make it less attractive for mothers to work full time. Given such competing narratives, my preference is to let people and businesses work it out for themselves.
This is an ongoing debate here in Perth, Western Australia. Currently, Sunday trading is restricted to shops in the CBD and only between 12pm and 5pm. On weekday evenings shops close at 6pm with the exception of Thursdays at 9pm.
I find it extremely frustrating. Most other capital cities in Australia have both late night weekday shopping AND no restrictions on Sunday trading. Most people here prefer the restrictions though. In 2005 a referendum was held on retail trading hours deregulation and was voted against. Interestingly, Perth has the lowest unemployment rate of any capital city and high average income. Frustrating as it is for myself, it’s difficult to call it outright paternalism, given that it went to a referendum.
As a Swiss, I sometimes get angry at the restrictions, but they aren’t that bad if you plan around them (and are getting more relaxed every year).
More importantly, are you giving a talk in Zurich?
And as for Zurich not taking serious, just why is it rated the city with the highest quality of living 4 times in a row now?
Vincent and Sean, Call it a lack of self-discipline if you will, but I’m merely pointing to a personal preference for a break from the retail gods.
We may discover like Vincent that we could ignore the shops on sunday, but if everyone else is out shopping, then the mall etc becomes the place to meet, yet again. (is this leisure clustering?) Those taking a walk in the forest are the odd ones..
I’m not judging Americans by this position, but I do find this retail imperialism misplaced. The right to shop is not a fundamental human right. Walmart’s failure in Germany is not Germany’s fault,it is Walmart’s.
I’d point the economists to John Kay’s piece here. http://www.johnkay.com/in_action/297
I especially like his concluding comment
When will Americans realise that if the rest of the world is not like the US, that is not necessarily a problem – either for us or for them?
After reading the comments, its nice to know that not only Americans will blindly rush to the defense of their country if someone criticizes it; even if that criticism is correct. Prussia would be proud of the blind nationalism.
This presents a interesting view of shopping (i.e., the economy). In America, for instance, few major stores are not open 24 hours (or have hours which seem to convenience everyone). In this setting, everyone has an opportunity to buy cheap crap from Wal-Mart, or even go to the Gap to buy that new scarf I have seen everyone wearing. While this is all well and good for businesses (notice I did not say consumers), it is both, the social unit and worker who suffer. Workers in these retail oriented jobs are expected to be working all the time. I, however, consider work time to be from about 8am to 6pm. While it would be slightly inconvenient if Wal-Mart did close at 6pm, I would rearrange my priorities to fit into the schedule. Perhaps shopping just on the weekend. But what happens to the almost 300 million of my American brethren? They would also shop on the weekends. This seems to be problematic. Lest I remind those, many years ago, nothing was open on Sunday. This has been replaced, of course, by the desire to buy. Consumerism! While it does economically benefit the shop owner, it makes for a mighty inconvenience for workers.
It seems to me the German/Swiss model is fine for a (nominally) Christian country in which hausfrauen actually are hausfrauen and can get the shopping done during normal business hours Monday-Friday. Not so great for a nation of singles and couples where both members work in the paid economy, unless you want to take a couple of (unpaid?) hours off of work to get the grocery shopping done or get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to make sure you get all of your errands done before noon.
I believe the gradual loosening of blue laws and of cultural prohibitions against Sunday shopping accompanied women’s larger presence in the workforce in the 70′s. When I was a kid (the late 50′s and 60′s) in New Jersey, supermarkets closed on Sundays, and I believe in New Jersey it was just custom (it was law in Pennsylvania, IIRC). Even today some of those customs remain (e.g., it’s damned hard to find a restaurant open in the Detroit area on Sunday afternoon except for the national brands (Friday’s, Applebee’s, etc.). Does anyone know whether Texans can buy lightbulbs on Sunday yet? When I visited a friend in Houston in 1983, the supermarket had a couple of aisles containing the never-on-Sunday items roped off, and among them were lightbulbs.
I’m pretty comfortable with the Japanese model myself. When I lived there, department stores and supermarkets were open Sundays, while smaller, local stores (such as the stationery store nearest my apartment) closed of their own volition. The convenience store nearest my apartment opened on Sundays, but not until noon. I guess the owners just decided they wanted to sleep in on Sunday. Fine by me.
First of all, like it was pointed out, Switzerland being a direct democratric country, these restrictions are actually sanctioned by the majority of the electorate. But the part about hausfrauen is just chauvinist bullshit, do take a look at labor force participation one day. The food at gas stations actually is decent (but overpriced) and you can actually order top end groceries to be delivered to your home quite cheaply (delivery charges somewhere between 5 to 10$ which, considering the time it saves, is quite cheap). Rushing to defend our country? You gotta be kidding me. Swiss and Germans are about the most self-critical people I ever came across (now THAT is a valid point to criticize
.
I have never been to Switzerland and I do not know much about their economy but I do know that as for Americans, it is not unusual for businesses to be closed down on Sundays, usually due to religious reasons and as for the places that are open on Sundays their hours are usually restricted, usually cut short buy five or so hours. So it seems as for the Swiss economy they do not rely much on the purchases of customers on Sundays and it must not affect the Swiss economy in any way, and much of the income comes from the business from the other six days of the week. I do feel that they should free Swiss shopping and let the businesses determine their own hours. I imagine that it is hard for many entrepreneurs that have just opened a new store to turn a profit; it probably takes a lot longer since they are cut short one day. This also goes to show how the Swiss government has a special place for big business. I am sure the mall is full of huge department stores and it is probably hard for any small business owners to get any leeway there. As for the condition of the mall it doesn’t make much sense if they want the tourist to be attracted to the mall and for the businesses to make any sort of profit at all.
I don’t think there was a Volksabstimmung in recent times (not one for complete liberalization anyway), however, with 100000 signatures one could be initiated. As far as I can tell, since nobody cares to take that relatively low hurdle (a lot weirder ideas passed that hurdle in any casE), people are content enough with the status quo (if business interests would think it were in their interest, they could easily fund the undertaking, after all). As for your other argument, it’s totally ridiculous to talk of a stay at home society when the labor force participation exceeds 50% for both genders by far. No matter if it’s somewhat lower than in the US or not.
Eric: By way of explanation, I’m not German. We just live there, in the South of Germany, where there are very few Prussians. However, I have met lots of Prussians recently and they don’t seem to exhibit “blind nationalism” anymore or less than other nationalities, so perhaps we can leave that out of what is otherwise a very interesting discussion.
I’m not defending “Germany”, merely pointing out that as a family we enjoy a Sunday without the lure of retail mall. I’m hesitant to articulate this into a broader utilitarian argument, perhaps because there isn’t one.
In many states in Germany, the laws have loosened up significantly. In B-W we can shop till 10pm mon-saturday, and some stores are beginnning to open on sundays too. At least in the German context, it seems that sunday shopping pretty much inevitable.
This may be all in the name of progress, but I wonder.
I feel your pain. I spent two years in Lausanne, Switzerland, and before I learned about the train-station exemption I had a hard time adjusting. I had a rhythm to my life where I did home maintenance on Saturdays and shopping on Sundays, but that didn’t work at all.
Like Chris says, this is not Swiss culture. Swiss culture is that evenings and weekends are terrific times to shop and fine times to work. You should see the lines! It is law, not culture, that closes down the shops on Sundays and evenings.
I personally find it creepy. The law is blatantly at odds with what the people desire. Silly citizens, not knowing what is best for them.
You’ve done a good job!
Is everything closed on Sundays because of a certain law or because it’s a custom there not to work on Sundays? In theory, small businesses should see a boost in sales if they work on Sunday selling uggs while the large malls and chains don’t.
If shopping is not allowed on Sunday, that doesn’t mean people can’t buy food and everything on Friday. Just because shopping is forbidden doesn’t make it “tastier” than it was the other days. I’d like to go there and just visit the city.
Josiah Charley – Restaurant Supply manager
I understand that Zurich may have an ugly underground shopping mall, but from what I have seen, this town has many superb restaurants, with lovely bar equipments, where you can stay all day long.
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