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Yeah I was in Germany for 3 months and Sundays were so surreal. Basically everything was closed. The busy streets were always empty. My then gf and I would walk to a little cafe for breakfast every sunday as it was one of the few places open.
It was great. But some mornings felt like a zombie apocalypse. It was always eerily quiet
it sounds like a good idea but i hate it. if you work and have kids, it essentially means you have to do all your stuff on saturday. if you want to do something fun on saturday, it’s more restrictive. you basically can’t be spontaneous. “oh we need nappies but dm is closed tomorrow so we have to get them today” kinda thing. it changes how you live your life in a very small but annoying way, i really hate it.
I hated it. Our town was basically closed on Sundays until mid 2000s I think. It was so annoying. Most people are working Monday to Friday and then have one day to get things done and everything was so busy on Saturdays.
I’m from London and this was what it was like during both lockdowns. Most people in the City are either tourists or workers. For once in my life and probably never again, I could take a walk without seeing a single car or soul (save for a local or two).
My Nan, a true east ender, was equally as amazed and unusually quiet during these walks. Which is something since she has a mouth that could make a sailor blush
They also close down after a certain time. The small town I lived in, the nearest grocery closed after like 6 or 7pm. It was actually nice.
If you felt like you needed to run out and get something, well you couldn't. It forces you to plan a bit better and relax more. It seems like it slows down the pace of everything, which was great.
I'm sure it's better for workers too. They get to have a bit of their evening, and their schedules aren't as all over the place (ie. night shifts).
I had a 8 hour layover in Germany, which would have been great if it wasn't on Sunday. We get there and the church bells ring and suddenly the entire area felt like it was evacuated lol. I know better for next time
Yes in Italy everything is closed on Sundays but this thing is slowly disappearing because multinational companies don't close on sunday and are able to pay employees to not lose 1/7 of the revenue.
Local shops still do this but I feel like it will eventually go away and it's sad.
not in total, but if one shop is open on Sunday that shop will get quite a bit of traffic from people that couldn't (didn't) go shopping monday-saturday.
This comes at a decrease is people over the week, but that decrease is shared with the competition...
Ruhetag in Germany sucks because if you've got a busy work week, it means that you've got to cram all of your shopping into Saturdays, plus have fun on Sundays in the winter when the sun goes down at 4pm and there's exceedingly little to do.
This sounds glorious and how I set up my weekends anyway… productive Saturday during the day, maybe plans Saturday night or just hang out. Sunday is rot in the couch day. I feel fine about it though because I did A TON of things on Saturday.
I wish we had a Ruhetag here in the US because I live in a suburb and people out here spend about every daylight hour running motorized lawnmowers, weed whackers, leaf blowers, and general noise-makers. Nighttime might have someone setting off fireworks for no reason. I have to wear noise-canceling headphones just so I don't have sensory overload.
The worst was when I used to have a neighbor who would take his loud-ass motorcycle out every night at 1:30am, always blasting Aerosmith's *Walk This Way*, and then come back like 5 minutes later.
I only now realise an aspect of this suburb life and I feel silly ; it was always odd to me to hear people talk about the noise but of course ! The houses are made of wood, so sounds I guess it propagates through the walls easier.
Yeah, but it's not like OP describe though. Sunday is not very different from over here where everything is open. You can choose to stay home or not, but you are certainly not forced home.
Kids play football, that's the day for club and competition. That's the typical day for family lunch. If you are into religion, well it's obviously an important day. It's also chores day. That's the same here.
You go out also, to the country side and co. You go grab a beer in a pub because the pubs and restaurant are open (at least for lunch). Touristic places are open because that's the one day people have nothing else conflicting, so they will visit stuff. Well you can do that here too.
Flip side, I remember the Saturday was a nightmare day, because anything that needed shops opened needed to happen that day for everyone that has a full time job. Every minute of Saturday during business hours was precious, so you would not have birthday party or friends over before the evening. And if was sunny on Saturday and rainy on Sunday, well tough luck, Saturday is sacred.
I remember the whole “everything is closed, it’s Sunday” thing growing up. Feel like it was around the turn of the century, around the time the “how early should Black Friday” conversation started, things shifted to being open constantly.
It kinda sucks if it's on the weekend.
You work 5 days a week. You spend Saturday running errands. And on Sunday, the only day you have time for yourself, you can't even find an open pub or cafe or theater. Lame.
Fully agree. In my country many things like banks or post offices also close at 5 on weekdays and even close during lunch breaks. When are we supposed to get anything done without using up our holiday hours? It’s so frustrating sometimes
Or that they can't go out to dinner, or to a bar, or see a movie, or a concert, or a sporting event, or anything else that is also someone's place of employment.
Usually in countries like her ein Germany, you can do all these things on Sunday. Entertainment and restaurants are still available, as is sports. Heck the European Cup final is on a Sunday.
It's just besides these everything else is closed.
Work schedules are still a thing, people that work on Sundays are bound to have another day (or more) that they are not scheduled. With smaller places, they're also usually closed on Monday or Tuesday if it's open on Sunday, depending on which days get the least business.
Well given that the minimum wage is almost twice the amount when comparing Germany and the US and there is a tax exempt Sunday bonus of 25% and you get another day off, there is some compensation for it.
traditionally restaurants were closed on mondays to compensate. Some still do that. Especially hairdressers still are mostly closed on mondays because they have their busiest day on saturday
I'm in Poland and most things are closed Sundays and it sucks. I work 5 days a week and if I don't manage all my errands on Saturday, I am screwed until next Saturday. I also lived in the US and it was nice to be able to, for example, go grocery shopping Sunday morning.
No, we should totally close everything Sunday when I have class 5 days a week and have to work myself on Saturday.
It's definitely a good idea. After all, everyone has the exact same schedule, don't they?
This. When I lived in Norway it very much felt as if the government expected everyone to have the same schedual.
In Norway, almost all offices close for 4 weeks over the summer. During those weeks, public transport got reduced. This made my life very difficult as I worked in a restaurant and obviously still had to got to work, except now, my commute was double as long because I had to get a much earlier bus or I would be late. At night, the buses would have stopped running so I would end up walking home.
It really made me feel like the government didn't see me and other service industry workers as important.
As a german, that is exactly what happens. The irony, however, is that retail workers are treated like shit and earn very little, but then everyone demands them to be happily willing to work on sundays.
Like no, you work mon-fri 9-5 in an office job. You can either go shopping after work or on saturdays. I work 5/6 days a week, the day i get off is always random, and i work in random shifts that actually do make it difficult to go shopping sometimes and I still manage to get everything done on my day off or before/after work. I will not be working on fucking sundays so you can get an extra day a week to shop and combat your bad planning. If you need shopping so badly on a sunday you can go to the fucking airport.
That's the only time that some people have. When you work long hours during the week and you're living in a place that wants to close down an entire day for religious purposes, it makes it difficult to get anything done. How about they make it a Tuesday day when I'm working and I can't make it out anyways?
But also don't go to the store or order food to be delivered to your house. (It's cool that you don't work that day, but it would be a lot cooler if you didn't cause work for other people, also.)
That's easy. You say this as if ordering delivery and buying premade meals at the store is the baseline. Do you not ordinarily stock your kitchen so you can cook at home? I generally keep at least one weeks worth of food at home at any time.
You’d be shocked to know how many people don’t do this. I work with someone my age (late 20s) and he said not only do him and his girlfriend DoorDash almost every night they can’t agree on where they want to get DoorDash so they order from 2 seperate restaurants and get what they each want. I mentioned cooking something super simple that night, like grilled chicken or something and he was like “you do all that work even after working all day!?” I was floored, and didn’t even tell him I do stuff like make my own bacon, poor guy would have had a heart attack.
They can’t but just don’t know it, and wonder why they can’t get ahead. Avocado toast might not be a problem, but if you order it 15 meals a week it just might be. You know what I’m sayin
I have a coworker that orders DoorDash every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. She orders her breakfast before she gets to work so it's waiting for her when she gets there. She will spend $20 to have a single smoothie delivered to the office.
We are vet techs. We don't make "DoorDash multiple times a day" money, and she makes LESS than I do. She also has three kids. I don't know how she affords it. I can barely afford to DoorDash once a MONTH.
I used to pick up fast food on the way home a lot, because I work 12+ hours a day as a vet tech - I'm EXHAUSTED at the end of the day. However, I realized I was wasting so much money and also destroying my health so I looked into really easy, cheap, relatively healthy meals to make at home. It's as easy as some chicken, rice, and frozen veggies thrown into the instapot while I shower, or a slow cooker meal that I leave on low for 8 hours and it's ready when I get home. One of the best decisions I've ever made.
> We don't make "DoorDash multiple times a day" money.
I like to think I do rather well, and I don't even make Doordash *once* money, let alone every day, because Doordash prices are fucking insane.
I’m not sure what his girlfriend does but he’s a contractor for the government and we live in not that expensive of an area considering where lots of government jobs are, so they’re doing pretty well
The pandemic really ushered that in in an aggressive way. So much delivery and eating out now and it’s like $25/person for mediocre food once it’s all accounted for
It’s wild too that restaurants inflate their prices on the apps, I can do a pickup order at a place and get a 10 dollar sandwich, if I do it through DoorDash same sandwich is 12.50 even for pickup as well.
It’s because they have to pay the app for the usage of it so they inflate just the prices for those using the app or online service. And there’s also just more process changes and overhead with doing online orders. Same reason you get a discount for using cash at the gas station and not a card
You'd be shocked how many people don't keep groceries on hand. They might keep shelf stable stuff but aren't buying protein, carb and fresh or frozen veggie options for the house. They aren't setting a scheduled menu every week, or at least getting stuff out of the freezer in the morning to cook that evening. They aren't stopping for a specific handful of ingredients for a dinner that night.
Instead, they spend buy ready to eat meals from stores, spend 30% overcharge on food delivery services, or eat out as their baseline, then turn around and bitch about how our generation is doomed because we don't make enough money.
I have a gaming friend that doordashes like 7-9 times a week, lunch and dinner. He'll doordash two entrees so that he has a meal he can reheat for later.
He asked me for help in building a shopping list so that he can start cooking his own meals to save money and eat healthier and I couldn't be more proud of him for taking that step.
For the record, I'm not shitting on eating out. My family eats out once a week, on average, or has food delivered, but the other 14-21 meals a week, we're cooking at home.
Can confirm. As someone who works in a grocery store, Sunday's business is typically double of even the next best day. Close to triple of the slower days.
It is the baseline for a lot of people/households.
It’s not mine, but I also don’t understand how people can keep more than a weeks worth of produce, even in the fridge I find a lot of it is not great about 2 days after purchase
Not everyone chills the same way as OP. For one person chilling means spending quiet time with family playing board games. For others it's going out to restaurants with friends.
Plus, we had a plague level event that comes around hopefully once a century and people lost their shit in an effort to save lives by closure. Now imagine closing for nothing
Perfect answer. I'm 64 and remember when everything was closed on Sunday.
Although I do have fond memories of going with my dad to tax free NH on Sunday mornings to buy beer and cigarettes, and sometimes a matchbox car for me.
I can enjoy downtime when businesses are open. I can enjoy downtime when businesses are closed.
People don't all have the same work schedules, so picking one day a week to shut eveyrthing down can significantly impact many people in a negative way.
The problem is that a huge chunk of employed folks have to work for said companies that are open 7 days a week and have little recourse in their schedules.
As someone who worked retail when I was younger it felt terrible to be working when most people I knew were chilling with friend and family.
I don't necessarily agree with op entirely but society has set the "weekend" as the time and not everyone gets to enjoy it. It sucks for those people.
I always loved having my "weekend" on off days.
I've worked in restaurants for 20 + years. My days off were usually Monday/Tuesday.
I hate going out on the same days everyone else is trying to have their weekend. Stores are packed, restaurants are busy, and activities like the zoo/museums/parks are full - not fun for me at all IMO.
Did I have to request off once in a while to go to a friend's birthday or an event? Sure. But I'd rather miss a few spontaneous nights out with the 9-5ers than be forced to run all my errands on a Saturday with everyone else.
I don’t miss a lot about working in a kitchen, but the relative ease of scheduling stuff like doctor visits and such is one of the things. Nowadays I have to consider what meetings I might have on a given day, try to schedule first thing in the morning or late afternoon to minimize the time I miss from work, and then decide whether to use PTO or work extra to make up for the missed time.
In the other hand, I do get paid like 8x my kitchen wage to just sit in one corner of my bedroom 40 hours a week with my dog curled up at my feet.
These companies typically have shift workers. No one is actually supposed to work 7 days a week. Working more than a certain amount of hours per week either means overtime or it's illegal. Simple, really. Heard the same arguments before and they always fail to account for this. I'd LOVE to work on weekends and be free on two weekdays instead, because I don't care what other people are doing in the meantime. Not everyone wants the same things as you.
> As someone who worked retail when I was younger it felt terrible to be working when most people I knew were chilling with friend and family.
You were young and a recent hire.
You were literally hired so that the people who had been there for years could take those days off.
You can't be entitled at the bottom of the ladder.
I disagree. I mean I agree with reducing to 4 day work week but coming from someone living in a country where nothing Is open on sundays and everything has to close earlier on Saturdays, it always just feels like you're not really free on those days. Like, yes you don't have to work but you also can't make any moves at all. It's a lost day. You can't actually use your time to get the groceries you need or make a doctors appointment you need.
We can all work less and still spread the remaining work hours in a way that you can always get what you need. It's not really relaxing at all when you have a day off but you have like a million things you want to or need to do in mind and you're forced to just wait it out. It's just frustrating. It's like someone forcing you to relax, which of course would be the least relaxing thing imaginable
Honestly I’m in the US and there’s certain companies that do close on specific days. One notable example is Chik Fil A (I probably spelled it incorrectly but I think people will get the gist). My manager explained it like this: she wanted some food from there one Sunday and then felt really disappointed when she remembered they’re closed.
I’d think that it would be way worse if every company closed on Sunday and you were not just dealing with the disappointment of a unsatisfied chicken craving…
Yeah like, I'd be fine with single companies closing on sunday but now imagine you have nothing to eat at home and all grocery stores are closed and even worse, you gotta work on Monday yo friday. during almost the entire opening hours of all grocery stores.
It's so absurd in a way. Like, you gotta organise your entire every day life around just making sure you always got food at home.
There is a difference between "I don't shop on Sundays" and "Neither should you". Both unpopular opinions, one slightly more unpleasant than the other.
The problem is picking which day. When I was a kid my neighbors were orthodox and we'd usually have one of us go over on Saturdays to see if they needed anything turned on.
I agree that we need 4 day work weeks. Most jobs don’t require people to work as much as they do and many office workers are not actually working the whole time they’re at work. But I don’t think that everything needs to close. What is rejuvenating and restful to one person isn’t to another. And staggering what the 4 work days are allows for people to go to appointments that are traditionally only available during normal working hours.
When people talk about the “four day work week” like this, it really excludes a large segment of society. Sure, I’d be happy for the guy working a 9/5 at the office to get more time off with his kids, I’m pro-labor. I just also know that guy is going to want to take his kids to get Icee’s, and I’ll probably still have to be on shift selling them. A four day work week also just like, doesn’t really work for hourly employees unless we were given a compensatory increase in our pay per hour. Knocking off a full 8 hour shift every week would be fantastic, but I’m not sure I could pay rent.
Those appointments would only be available 4 days each week because those workers would also have 4-day work weeks. Appointments would need to be reduced 20%. Garbage collection would be reduced as well in both amounts thrown out and frequency of pick-up.
There are businesses that do rotating 4 day work weeks. So either you don’t have everyone off on the same day so there’s still 5 days for appointments, or you could have half of your staff off on Fridays every other week. Maybe it doesn’t work for doctors but it absolutely works for things like meeting with a bank or insurance agent where their entire job isn’t just meeting with clients but is really being available for clients.
Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of arguments like the one above. Have people never heard of the concept of rotating shifts? Plus, for places that don't have 1-3 shifts, they would likely be open longer to accommodate having 10 hour shifts instead of 8. So, if anything, there would actually be more available time for appointments.
No lol. That would leave even less days to do stuff like go to the bank or go to the dentist. Imagine if you run out of something on Sunday and you need to buy it asap (ig toilet paper, food, clothes).
Yeah nah, i live in a country where everything is closed sundays... that includes anything that makes noise in your personal hours. you cant cut grass, work at projects at home that may disturb neighbors etc...
Nah I hate this. I live in a place where that sort of happens and it fucking blows. Makes you rush around and stress on one day off so you don't regret not doing the things that are open on the other day off.
Most stores are still closed on sundays here in the Netherlands. They get to open on Sundays around once per month. Only supermarkets are allowed to open on sundays since 20 years ago.
Back when i was a kid all stores closed at 6pm 6 days per week. It was a nightmare to have to cram all the grocery shopping on saturdays for workimg people. I hated those giant weekly shops standing in long lines at the grocery store.
Absolutely.
I live in Utah and remember when everything was closed on Sunday. Then when things were open but it wasn't as crowded. Now it's more crowded on a Sunday which is kinda disappointing.
Idaho has almost everything closed Sunday and Monday.
It just makes it more inconvenient for people who only have weekends off. What we really need is a 4 day work week so everyone has an additional day to do what they need. The 40 hour work week was created BEFORE WW2 and that was to prevent people from being over worked THEN. A shift is coming and we need to LEAN IN instead of fight against it.
I've been in Germany for a few months to study. You have no idea how obnoxious it is to have a day where nothing but emergency services run. It makes other days much busier, and really cramps my flexibility for shopping and other activities.
Like all things, more freedom for individuals to choose how they live their lives is always better. The market exists for business to run on Sunday, so let it do so.
Thank you lol. One day a week of not being able to do things means you have to shove everything into the other days and cram them up even more. Also, like you said, some of us actually *want* to do things every day!
I am all for making it Wednesday, if we go to the 4 day work week. About ten years ago I had a job where I worked 5 days a week but had Wed/Sat off. I actually felt SO MUCH LESS burned out because I wasn’t trying to string together five straight work days. Work 3, take a day, work 2 more, take a day.
Nah it’s better if everyone’s “do nothing” time is staggered. I do nothing on Wednesdays and other people doing things those days allows me to do that. I do things on Sundays so people who do nothing that day can.
I’m looking forward to all the nursing home residents being picked up one day each week by their loving families to spend quality family time together.
I think there's validity to the concept of doing nothing, and that's why it's in most religions in one form or another.
Doing nothing can be valuable, boredom can be a very positive force.
People are over-stimulated. Always doing something, we even have devices for something to do while taking a dump, can even play complex games.
We're addicts not giving our brains time enough to be introspective, not enough pondering and wondering. We start jonesing and get anxiety at the mere chance of boredom and that interferes with getting anything out of it.
Our brains are becoming the human version of [foie gras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras).
Same. My store only closes on Christmas and Thanksgiving, but we still get people complaining about that so I can only imagine what people would say if god forbid we weren’t open one day out of the week.
People complain about literally everything. Even on holidays we are open but has shorter hours. Like Thanksgiving we close at 4 and people are still trying to come in.
Well which day would be the day everything was closed? Not everyone has the same priorities. Not everyone worships the same god that demands the same day of rest. Not everyone worships a god of any sort.
You cannot force life to cater to your needs. If you work in the medical field you cannot schedule when people get sick, or hurt. Shit happens. What about people in these type of jobs? What day gets shut down?
Maybe God was on to something. Maybe the rules were there for a reason. I don't do shit on Sunday, I don't even go to church. Everyone I know, knows I just hang out and they just stop by.
i remember when i was a kid, everything was closed on christmas and thanksgiving. we would have to buy stuff the day or two before because we knew we wouldn’t be able to get it the day of. now, it feels like any other day.
No, we really don't.
I used to have Sunday and Monday off. I'm in New York, and even still, things close early on Sundays. Nobody wants to hang out because they're dreading going back to work on Monday. I *hated* having Sundays off.
It wasn't that long ago that Sundays were like this in the US. I remember it very well even in the early 90s. So many stores we're closed on Sunday.
Today Hobby Lobby and Chik Fila are the only ones.
if you think retail or major corporations are going to let this fly you are out of your mind. It's done and its not going to be reversed. I am totally for having blue laws again and closing on Sunday but unfortunately that ship has sailed.
I haven't thought about it, but a quiet break on Wednesdays would be absolutely breathtakingly awesome. Work 2 days, BREAK, work 2 more days, WEEKEND. Beautiful. Perfect. 10/10 no notes let's do this right now
Looking back, the beginning of the pandemic was kinda fun for this reason. Nobody was doing anything except chilling at home , no expectations, no deadlines, "two weeks to slow the spread" I'll never forget it.
Lived in Germany, loved the everything closed Sundays. Now I live in Thailand, non stop party coffee restaurant boozing music fireworks noise and yeah longing for German Sundays
It’s like this in Israel on Saturday because it’s Shabbat, everything (not literally everything but a ton of stuff) shuts down including public transportation which is really annoying. The people who keep Shabbat are gonna do it anyway why does everyone else have to be limited
This used to be the case here in NL, in some towns it still is. Now theres even supermarkets open op Christmas. I actually agree with you that its good for society if things slow down and everyone just gets a break
That "nothing", unfortunately, requires other people to be on the clock. Wanna hit up Taco Bell? Oh, closed because of blue laws. Wanna see a movie? Oh, blue laws. Outdoor miniature golf? Blue laws. That park? Nope, blue laws.
Nice on paper. But wouldn't work. : (
Absolutely not. It infuriates me that there aren’t MORE places open 24/7 and that places close on Sunday and Saturday. It wastes so much time for actually productive people.
Ah yes, the only fully free day when most people can do fun things, like their hobbys? Let's forbid that! Want to go to gym? Nuh uhh. Maybe climbing, karting, bowling, something other than walking in the park? Well, sucks to be you!
It is normal in other countries. Maybe try including your country in the title. Guessing America ? Cause this is an opinion relevant only for your specific country
Well, when we had the Blue Laws in effect (I'm old, I lived through this shit) not everything was closed on Sundays. Gas stations, some grocery stores, and essential services were all still open, although many had reduced hours.
Personally, I like it better with everything open 7 days a week
In America in the mid 80s on Christmas day most everything was closed. Not even the gas stations were open. I blame the building of convenience stores.
The problem with this in the US is that many workplaces are 24/7. Most production facilities, hospitals, etc are around the clock. It can totally suck if you are one of the workers and have no place to buy lunch because everything is closed.
This has a privileged take IMHO. Things used to be closed on Sunday including libraries but it was the one day that many common people were able to use those services.
I think it should be the opposite. More flexible schedules, you get to decide which days and hours a week you work. It might make scheduling harder, but there's always opportunities to go out and do things, and businesses can stay open longer without killing their workers.
Why does everyone need to do that? If you work week days you can do nothing on Sunday. If you work weekends you can do nothing on a day you have off. Don’t see why you need 100% participation
In Europe (before the industrial revolution), people napped several times per day, slept twice per evening and Sundays were a day of "rest and worship". The only thing they did was go to church and then do no work for the rest of the day - save for farmers who would occasionally need to continue tending the lands (depending on the season/weather).
The industrial revolution ushered in the culture of "work, work, work" and being as productive as possible. Before the industrial revolution, such a mindset was only really promoted during wartime, when production needed to be maximized.
The industrial revolution brought about the mindset of maximum production for the majority of the time.
I'm interested to see what will happen once A.I. and automation eventually replace a majority of the workforce.
Will we return to pre-industrial revolution production standards (for humans)?
After the paradigm shift in the global economy is figured out and things change as most work becomes automated, will humanity spend more time relaxing, pursuing the arts and more intellectual pursuits?
Will I even be around to see this?
Hard to say.
Err, anyway ... You'll find that Sundays are still considered a "day of rest" in many parts of the globe. (Especially in Europe - Primarily Germany).
Certain Jewish practitioners also use Saturday as a "Sabbath" or "day of rest".
So what would happen if you were on vacation and staying at a motel? No restaurants, clubs or bars? Would the staff just not come to work and close up the businesses? What about hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities? What about pharmacies? How about USPS, UPS and FedEx? How about gas stations? How about truck drivers? No DoorDash? No childcare? No public transportation, airlines, bus services or trains? And what about no snow plows? No theme parks, ski resorts or beaches? And what would happen if you were on a cruise? No entertainment like concerts, theaters or casinos? And the list could go on and on....
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There are plenty of countries where everything is closed on Sundays
Yeah I was in Germany for 3 months and Sundays were so surreal. Basically everything was closed. The busy streets were always empty. My then gf and I would walk to a little cafe for breakfast every sunday as it was one of the few places open. It was great. But some mornings felt like a zombie apocalypse. It was always eerily quiet
Yeah in some places you are not even allowed to vacuum on a Sunday :D
Psh, amateurs. I don't vacuum any day of the week.
I don't even own a vacuum cleaner!
what's a vacuum?
I dunno, probably sucks
Love this about Germany tbh. Just a day where the whole country rests
it sounds like a good idea but i hate it. if you work and have kids, it essentially means you have to do all your stuff on saturday. if you want to do something fun on saturday, it’s more restrictive. you basically can’t be spontaneous. “oh we need nappies but dm is closed tomorrow so we have to get them today” kinda thing. it changes how you live your life in a very small but annoying way, i really hate it.
I hated it. Our town was basically closed on Sundays until mid 2000s I think. It was so annoying. Most people are working Monday to Friday and then have one day to get things done and everything was so busy on Saturdays.
Sounds blissful.
You basically have "Christmas season shopping" every Saturday. The crowds are terrible
Not really. Museums, bars, restaurants, clubs, movie theaters, flower shops, and cafes are all open on Sundays. It’s just stores that are closed.
A flower shop is not a store?
I’m from London and this was what it was like during both lockdowns. Most people in the City are either tourists or workers. For once in my life and probably never again, I could take a walk without seeing a single car or soul (save for a local or two). My Nan, a true east ender, was equally as amazed and unusually quiet during these walks. Which is something since she has a mouth that could make a sailor blush
Out of curiosity how busy was that cafe? Or the other places that were open?
I was so confused about this post because I live in Germany and I first thought he forgot sunday.
They also close down after a certain time. The small town I lived in, the nearest grocery closed after like 6 or 7pm. It was actually nice. If you felt like you needed to run out and get something, well you couldn't. It forces you to plan a bit better and relax more. It seems like it slows down the pace of everything, which was great. I'm sure it's better for workers too. They get to have a bit of their evening, and their schedules aren't as all over the place (ie. night shifts).
Damn my American self centered ness. I had no idea this why a thing. I just assumed everyone does everything on Sundays. I’m Mind blown.
I had a 8 hour layover in Germany, which would have been great if it wasn't on Sunday. We get there and the church bells ring and suddenly the entire area felt like it was evacuated lol. I know better for next time
Yes in Italy everything is closed on Sundays but this thing is slowly disappearing because multinational companies don't close on sunday and are able to pay employees to not lose 1/7 of the revenue. Local shops still do this but I feel like it will eventually go away and it's sad.
I don’t think Germany will let it go away anytime soon lol 😂
So you think people really buy more clothes or groceries because shops are open on a Sunday?
not in total, but if one shop is open on Sunday that shop will get quite a bit of traffic from people that couldn't (didn't) go shopping monday-saturday. This comes at a decrease is people over the week, but that decrease is shared with the competition...
Yesss! Come to Germany, not an unpopular opinion here at all. Most of us like our quiet sundays.
Ruhetag in Germany sucks because if you've got a busy work week, it means that you've got to cram all of your shopping into Saturdays, plus have fun on Sundays in the winter when the sun goes down at 4pm and there's exceedingly little to do.
This sounds glorious and how I set up my weekends anyway… productive Saturday during the day, maybe plans Saturday night or just hang out. Sunday is rot in the couch day. I feel fine about it though because I did A TON of things on Saturday.
I wish we had a Ruhetag here in the US because I live in a suburb and people out here spend about every daylight hour running motorized lawnmowers, weed whackers, leaf blowers, and general noise-makers. Nighttime might have someone setting off fireworks for no reason. I have to wear noise-canceling headphones just so I don't have sensory overload. The worst was when I used to have a neighbor who would take his loud-ass motorcycle out every night at 1:30am, always blasting Aerosmith's *Walk This Way*, and then come back like 5 minutes later.
I only now realise an aspect of this suburb life and I feel silly ; it was always odd to me to hear people talk about the noise but of course ! The houses are made of wood, so sounds I guess it propagates through the walls easier.
Yeah, but it's not like OP describe though. Sunday is not very different from over here where everything is open. You can choose to stay home or not, but you are certainly not forced home. Kids play football, that's the day for club and competition. That's the typical day for family lunch. If you are into religion, well it's obviously an important day. It's also chores day. That's the same here. You go out also, to the country side and co. You go grab a beer in a pub because the pubs and restaurant are open (at least for lunch). Touristic places are open because that's the one day people have nothing else conflicting, so they will visit stuff. Well you can do that here too. Flip side, I remember the Saturday was a nightmare day, because anything that needed shops opened needed to happen that day for everyone that has a full time job. Every minute of Saturday during business hours was precious, so you would not have birthday party or friends over before the evening. And if was sunny on Saturday and rainy on Sunday, well tough luck, Saturday is sacred.
Yep live in Normandy and on Sundays it's like a ghost town, which I love!
And there are others where life shuts down on Fridays. It’s nice to have a break once a week!
I remember the whole “everything is closed, it’s Sunday” thing growing up. Feel like it was around the turn of the century, around the time the “how early should Black Friday” conversation started, things shifted to being open constantly.
Touring Spain now. As someone on foot it’s frustrating but it looks so luxurious to live here
It kinda sucks if it's on the weekend. You work 5 days a week. You spend Saturday running errands. And on Sunday, the only day you have time for yourself, you can't even find an open pub or cafe or theater. Lame.
Fully agree. In my country many things like banks or post offices also close at 5 on weekdays and even close during lunch breaks. When are we supposed to get anything done without using up our holiday hours? It’s so frustrating sometimes
I can only imagine the complaining by people if you cut the amount of time they had on the weekend to buy things.
Or that they can't go out to dinner, or to a bar, or see a movie, or a concert, or a sporting event, or anything else that is also someone's place of employment.
Usually in countries like her ein Germany, you can do all these things on Sunday. Entertainment and restaurants are still available, as is sports. Heck the European Cup final is on a Sunday. It's just besides these everything else is closed.
So everyone else gets a day off, and low wage employees don't. It's not really a boon for most people.
Work schedules are still a thing, people that work on Sundays are bound to have another day (or more) that they are not scheduled. With smaller places, they're also usually closed on Monday or Tuesday if it's open on Sunday, depending on which days get the least business.
Well given that the minimum wage is almost twice the amount when comparing Germany and the US and there is a tax exempt Sunday bonus of 25% and you get another day off, there is some compensation for it.
Indeed.
traditionally restaurants were closed on mondays to compensate. Some still do that. Especially hairdressers still are mostly closed on mondays because they have their busiest day on saturday
You get way more money here working on sundays + getting another day off during the week so its not that bad
I'm in Poland and most things are closed Sundays and it sucks. I work 5 days a week and if I don't manage all my errands on Saturday, I am screwed until next Saturday. I also lived in the US and it was nice to be able to, for example, go grocery shopping Sunday morning.
No, we should totally close everything Sunday when I have class 5 days a week and have to work myself on Saturday. It's definitely a good idea. After all, everyone has the exact same schedule, don't they?
This. When I lived in Norway it very much felt as if the government expected everyone to have the same schedual. In Norway, almost all offices close for 4 weeks over the summer. During those weeks, public transport got reduced. This made my life very difficult as I worked in a restaurant and obviously still had to got to work, except now, my commute was double as long because I had to get a much earlier bus or I would be late. At night, the buses would have stopped running so I would end up walking home. It really made me feel like the government didn't see me and other service industry workers as important.
Not even in a "CONSUME" way, but it would suck if you needed to go to the hardware store or grocery store
I live in a country like this and it's very annoying.
As a german, that is exactly what happens. The irony, however, is that retail workers are treated like shit and earn very little, but then everyone demands them to be happily willing to work on sundays. Like no, you work mon-fri 9-5 in an office job. You can either go shopping after work or on saturdays. I work 5/6 days a week, the day i get off is always random, and i work in random shifts that actually do make it difficult to go shopping sometimes and I still manage to get everything done on my day off or before/after work. I will not be working on fucking sundays so you can get an extra day a week to shop and combat your bad planning. If you need shopping so badly on a sunday you can go to the fucking airport.
That's the only time that some people have. When you work long hours during the week and you're living in a place that wants to close down an entire day for religious purposes, it makes it difficult to get anything done. How about they make it a Tuesday day when I'm working and I can't make it out anyways?
Or if you are one of the people who has to work every day and everyone else can be closed.
[удалено]
But also don't go to the store or order food to be delivered to your house. (It's cool that you don't work that day, but it would be a lot cooler if you didn't cause work for other people, also.)
lol. People want to do nothing, sit at home, and order DoorDash. Only to find out DoorDash employees at home doing nothing too. 🤣🤣🤣
That’s what I do on my “down” day!!
That's easy. You say this as if ordering delivery and buying premade meals at the store is the baseline. Do you not ordinarily stock your kitchen so you can cook at home? I generally keep at least one weeks worth of food at home at any time.
You’d be shocked to know how many people don’t do this. I work with someone my age (late 20s) and he said not only do him and his girlfriend DoorDash almost every night they can’t agree on where they want to get DoorDash so they order from 2 seperate restaurants and get what they each want. I mentioned cooking something super simple that night, like grilled chicken or something and he was like “you do all that work even after working all day!?” I was floored, and didn’t even tell him I do stuff like make my own bacon, poor guy would have had a heart attack.
How do people afford to get takeout every day? Surely youre just working to pay for takeout at that point.
They can’t but just don’t know it, and wonder why they can’t get ahead. Avocado toast might not be a problem, but if you order it 15 meals a week it just might be. You know what I’m sayin
I have a coworker that orders DoorDash every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. She orders her breakfast before she gets to work so it's waiting for her when she gets there. She will spend $20 to have a single smoothie delivered to the office. We are vet techs. We don't make "DoorDash multiple times a day" money, and she makes LESS than I do. She also has three kids. I don't know how she affords it. I can barely afford to DoorDash once a MONTH. I used to pick up fast food on the way home a lot, because I work 12+ hours a day as a vet tech - I'm EXHAUSTED at the end of the day. However, I realized I was wasting so much money and also destroying my health so I looked into really easy, cheap, relatively healthy meals to make at home. It's as easy as some chicken, rice, and frozen veggies thrown into the instapot while I shower, or a slow cooker meal that I leave on low for 8 hours and it's ready when I get home. One of the best decisions I've ever made.
> We don't make "DoorDash multiple times a day" money. I like to think I do rather well, and I don't even make Doordash *once* money, let alone every day, because Doordash prices are fucking insane.
So many friends I know literally live this way. Most of their check is spent on delivered food and shared rent with roommates 😬
I’m not sure what his girlfriend does but he’s a contractor for the government and we live in not that expensive of an area considering where lots of government jobs are, so they’re doing pretty well
> How do people afford to get takeout every day? Why do you think so many people complain about having no money?
The people I know that have takeaways most days are pretty loaded
He'd have a stroke if I told him I slice my own steaks out of larger cuts because it makes it way cheaper. Chuck Primal Roll is awesome.
The pandemic really ushered that in in an aggressive way. So much delivery and eating out now and it’s like $25/person for mediocre food once it’s all accounted for
It’s wild too that restaurants inflate their prices on the apps, I can do a pickup order at a place and get a 10 dollar sandwich, if I do it through DoorDash same sandwich is 12.50 even for pickup as well.
It’s because they have to pay the app for the usage of it so they inflate just the prices for those using the app or online service. And there’s also just more process changes and overhead with doing online orders. Same reason you get a discount for using cash at the gas station and not a card
You get a discount at gas stations for using cash? Wtf have I been missing
I refuse to use delivery apps. Too expensive. I'm going pick it up.
Even after working ALL day?? You’re a Superman!
Double the price for cold food, haven’t ordered that shit since mid 2020.
You'd be shocked how many people don't keep groceries on hand. They might keep shelf stable stuff but aren't buying protein, carb and fresh or frozen veggie options for the house. They aren't setting a scheduled menu every week, or at least getting stuff out of the freezer in the morning to cook that evening. They aren't stopping for a specific handful of ingredients for a dinner that night. Instead, they spend buy ready to eat meals from stores, spend 30% overcharge on food delivery services, or eat out as their baseline, then turn around and bitch about how our generation is doomed because we don't make enough money. I have a gaming friend that doordashes like 7-9 times a week, lunch and dinner. He'll doordash two entrees so that he has a meal he can reheat for later. He asked me for help in building a shopping list so that he can start cooking his own meals to save money and eat healthier and I couldn't be more proud of him for taking that step. For the record, I'm not shitting on eating out. My family eats out once a week, on average, or has food delivered, but the other 14-21 meals a week, we're cooking at home.
The average person grocery shops on Sunday, the former “everything is closed day of rest day”.
Can confirm. As someone who works in a grocery store, Sunday's business is typically double of even the next best day. Close to triple of the slower days.
It is the baseline for a lot of people/households. It’s not mine, but I also don’t understand how people can keep more than a weeks worth of produce, even in the fridge I find a lot of it is not great about 2 days after purchase
Sure, it is all within your own control
I dunno, I think those people want to make money.
Those people will already be working.
You dont need a million dollars to do nothing. Look at my cousin, he's broke and dont do shit.
I think what the OP is implying is that every place should be closed for everyone to be able to chill on a specific day.
Why though? Because they’re fomoing and want the rest of us to sit around and do nothing?
I don’t quite know….i just see that as the point he was trying to make.
Except it doesn’t work that way. Nurses still have to nurse. Gas stations have to gas. The grocery stores were always open on that day. Etc.
OP has never run put of toilet paper on Xmas day in a small town.
Not everyone chills the same way as OP. For one person chilling means spending quiet time with family playing board games. For others it's going out to restaurants with friends.
I did nothing all day. And it was everything I thought it could be
Its actually really hard for everyone to get the same day off unless you're all office workers
Plus, we had a plague level event that comes around hopefully once a century and people lost their shit in an effort to save lives by closure. Now imagine closing for nothing
Perfect answer. I'm 64 and remember when everything was closed on Sunday. Although I do have fond memories of going with my dad to tax free NH on Sunday mornings to buy beer and cigarettes, and sometimes a matchbox car for me.
Massachusetts? It’s hilarious that this is the thing that everyone *still* does if they live close enough.
That doesn't work, because the rest of the world is going to expect you to be doing something.
You don’t need a million dollars to do nothin’. Take a look at my cousin, he’s broke don’t do shit.
You don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin; he's broke don't do _shit_.
I can enjoy downtime when businesses are open. I can enjoy downtime when businesses are closed. People don't all have the same work schedules, so picking one day a week to shut eveyrthing down can significantly impact many people in a negative way.
The problem is that a huge chunk of employed folks have to work for said companies that are open 7 days a week and have little recourse in their schedules. As someone who worked retail when I was younger it felt terrible to be working when most people I knew were chilling with friend and family. I don't necessarily agree with op entirely but society has set the "weekend" as the time and not everyone gets to enjoy it. It sucks for those people.
I always loved having my "weekend" on off days. I've worked in restaurants for 20 + years. My days off were usually Monday/Tuesday. I hate going out on the same days everyone else is trying to have their weekend. Stores are packed, restaurants are busy, and activities like the zoo/museums/parks are full - not fun for me at all IMO. Did I have to request off once in a while to go to a friend's birthday or an event? Sure. But I'd rather miss a few spontaneous nights out with the 9-5ers than be forced to run all my errands on a Saturday with everyone else.
I'm the same, I love having my "weekend" during the week. Kids are in school, people are in the office, I can enjoy life.
I don’t miss a lot about working in a kitchen, but the relative ease of scheduling stuff like doctor visits and such is one of the things. Nowadays I have to consider what meetings I might have on a given day, try to schedule first thing in the morning or late afternoon to minimize the time I miss from work, and then decide whether to use PTO or work extra to make up for the missed time. In the other hand, I do get paid like 8x my kitchen wage to just sit in one corner of my bedroom 40 hours a week with my dog curled up at my feet.
I work in retail and work 75%+ of weekend days and I'm the same - I like getting midweek days off. Hotels and things can be cheaper midweek.
These companies typically have shift workers. No one is actually supposed to work 7 days a week. Working more than a certain amount of hours per week either means overtime or it's illegal. Simple, really. Heard the same arguments before and they always fail to account for this. I'd LOVE to work on weekends and be free on two weekdays instead, because I don't care what other people are doing in the meantime. Not everyone wants the same things as you.
> As someone who worked retail when I was younger it felt terrible to be working when most people I knew were chilling with friend and family. You were young and a recent hire. You were literally hired so that the people who had been there for years could take those days off. You can't be entitled at the bottom of the ladder.
Also like they chose to work that job. If they hated it so much they could have found new employment
My Sunday is always my rest day. I don’t go anywhere. You can create this world for yourself.
I disagree. I mean I agree with reducing to 4 day work week but coming from someone living in a country where nothing Is open on sundays and everything has to close earlier on Saturdays, it always just feels like you're not really free on those days. Like, yes you don't have to work but you also can't make any moves at all. It's a lost day. You can't actually use your time to get the groceries you need or make a doctors appointment you need. We can all work less and still spread the remaining work hours in a way that you can always get what you need. It's not really relaxing at all when you have a day off but you have like a million things you want to or need to do in mind and you're forced to just wait it out. It's just frustrating. It's like someone forcing you to relax, which of course would be the least relaxing thing imaginable
Honestly I’m in the US and there’s certain companies that do close on specific days. One notable example is Chik Fil A (I probably spelled it incorrectly but I think people will get the gist). My manager explained it like this: she wanted some food from there one Sunday and then felt really disappointed when she remembered they’re closed. I’d think that it would be way worse if every company closed on Sunday and you were not just dealing with the disappointment of a unsatisfied chicken craving…
Yeah like, I'd be fine with single companies closing on sunday but now imagine you have nothing to eat at home and all grocery stores are closed and even worse, you gotta work on Monday yo friday. during almost the entire opening hours of all grocery stores. It's so absurd in a way. Like, you gotta organise your entire every day life around just making sure you always got food at home.
Just move to Germany, we got almost everything being closed on Sundays. Expats usually hate it.
Wishing to take your choices away is popular in this sub.
People post unpopular opinions here, the problem being that often those opinions are unpopular for a reason
There is a difference between "I don't shop on Sundays" and "Neither should you". Both unpopular opinions, one slightly more unpleasant than the other.
And yet everyone complains that stuff is closed on Sunday in Germany.
The Old Testament approves of this post.
The problem is picking which day. When I was a kid my neighbors were orthodox and we'd usually have one of us go over on Saturdays to see if they needed anything turned on.
Then you'd be inconveniencing a lot of people who need that day to shop, many of whom would have their only day off, but nowhere to shop
Go to Germany. You cant even mow your lawn on sundays
I agree that we need 4 day work weeks. Most jobs don’t require people to work as much as they do and many office workers are not actually working the whole time they’re at work. But I don’t think that everything needs to close. What is rejuvenating and restful to one person isn’t to another. And staggering what the 4 work days are allows for people to go to appointments that are traditionally only available during normal working hours.
When people talk about the “four day work week” like this, it really excludes a large segment of society. Sure, I’d be happy for the guy working a 9/5 at the office to get more time off with his kids, I’m pro-labor. I just also know that guy is going to want to take his kids to get Icee’s, and I’ll probably still have to be on shift selling them. A four day work week also just like, doesn’t really work for hourly employees unless we were given a compensatory increase in our pay per hour. Knocking off a full 8 hour shift every week would be fantastic, but I’m not sure I could pay rent.
Those appointments would only be available 4 days each week because those workers would also have 4-day work weeks. Appointments would need to be reduced 20%. Garbage collection would be reduced as well in both amounts thrown out and frequency of pick-up.
There are businesses that do rotating 4 day work weeks. So either you don’t have everyone off on the same day so there’s still 5 days for appointments, or you could have half of your staff off on Fridays every other week. Maybe it doesn’t work for doctors but it absolutely works for things like meeting with a bank or insurance agent where their entire job isn’t just meeting with clients but is really being available for clients.
Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of arguments like the one above. Have people never heard of the concept of rotating shifts? Plus, for places that don't have 1-3 shifts, they would likely be open longer to accommodate having 10 hour shifts instead of 8. So, if anything, there would actually be more available time for appointments.
No lol. That would leave even less days to do stuff like go to the bank or go to the dentist. Imagine if you run out of something on Sunday and you need to buy it asap (ig toilet paper, food, clothes).
Yeah nah, i live in a country where everything is closed sundays... that includes anything that makes noise in your personal hours. you cant cut grass, work at projects at home that may disturb neighbors etc...
This would suck for people who’s day off lands on that day because they would not be able to run necessary errands that day
Nah I hate this. I live in a place where that sort of happens and it fucking blows. Makes you rush around and stress on one day off so you don't regret not doing the things that are open on the other day off.
I'm old enough to remember when everything was closed on Sundays. No thanks. Nothing more annoying then 1/2 of your weekend having everything closed.
Most stores are still closed on sundays here in the Netherlands. They get to open on Sundays around once per month. Only supermarkets are allowed to open on sundays since 20 years ago. Back when i was a kid all stores closed at 6pm 6 days per week. It was a nightmare to have to cram all the grocery shopping on saturdays for workimg people. I hated those giant weekly shops standing in long lines at the grocery store.
Absolutely. I live in Utah and remember when everything was closed on Sunday. Then when things were open but it wasn't as crowded. Now it's more crowded on a Sunday which is kinda disappointing. Idaho has almost everything closed Sunday and Monday.
It just makes it more inconvenient for people who only have weekends off. What we really need is a 4 day work week so everyone has an additional day to do what they need. The 40 hour work week was created BEFORE WW2 and that was to prevent people from being over worked THEN. A shift is coming and we need to LEAN IN instead of fight against it.
I've been in Germany for a few months to study. You have no idea how obnoxious it is to have a day where nothing but emergency services run. It makes other days much busier, and really cramps my flexibility for shopping and other activities. Like all things, more freedom for individuals to choose how they live their lives is always better. The market exists for business to run on Sunday, so let it do so.
I feel like people should have a choice… maybe some of us want to do things everyday
Thank you lol. One day a week of not being able to do things means you have to shove everything into the other days and cram them up even more. Also, like you said, some of us actually *want* to do things every day!
Sunday in Spain was dope, sometimes I’d forget to buy beer on Saturday though
How very authoritarian of you. Also, Wednesday is donut day.
I am all for making it Wednesday, if we go to the 4 day work week. About ten years ago I had a job where I worked 5 days a week but had Wed/Sat off. I actually felt SO MUCH LESS burned out because I wasn’t trying to string together five straight work days. Work 3, take a day, work 2 more, take a day.
That's what my work schedule was like in college, and it was honestly pretty amazing. Just like you, I felt much less burned out.
Nah it’s better if everyone’s “do nothing” time is staggered. I do nothing on Wednesdays and other people doing things those days allows me to do that. I do things on Sundays so people who do nothing that day can.
That's why the Sabbath or "day of rest" was a tradition. It's good for us. But of course you can just do this yourself! What's stopping you?
Lol. No.
We have that day in Germany. It's called "Sunday".
I’m looking forward to all the nursing home residents being picked up one day each week by their loving families to spend quality family time together.
I think there's validity to the concept of doing nothing, and that's why it's in most religions in one form or another. Doing nothing can be valuable, boredom can be a very positive force. People are over-stimulated. Always doing something, we even have devices for something to do while taking a dump, can even play complex games. We're addicts not giving our brains time enough to be introspective, not enough pondering and wondering. We start jonesing and get anxiety at the mere chance of boredom and that interferes with getting anything out of it. Our brains are becoming the human version of [foie gras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras).
Closed on Sunday you my chic-fil-a
I’d love this!! But it’s never going to happen
Sure, but make it Wednesday.
As a person who works in a grocery store, I am all for that.
Same. My store only closes on Christmas and Thanksgiving, but we still get people complaining about that so I can only imagine what people would say if god forbid we weren’t open one day out of the week.
People complain about literally everything. Even on holidays we are open but has shorter hours. Like Thanksgiving we close at 4 and people are still trying to come in.
lol this would be an absolute disaster. Upvote.
A do nothing Wednesday sounds nice That or a daily nap time that EVERYONE takes Mexico has the right idea
Its like that in Poland, almost everything is closed on Sunday
💯
Thats the case here in Belgium on sunday
Well which day would be the day everything was closed? Not everyone has the same priorities. Not everyone worships the same god that demands the same day of rest. Not everyone worships a god of any sort. You cannot force life to cater to your needs. If you work in the medical field you cannot schedule when people get sick, or hurt. Shit happens. What about people in these type of jobs? What day gets shut down?
Maybe God was on to something. Maybe the rules were there for a reason. I don't do shit on Sunday, I don't even go to church. Everyone I know, knows I just hang out and they just stop by.
i remember when i was a kid, everything was closed on christmas and thanksgiving. we would have to buy stuff the day or two before because we knew we wouldn’t be able to get it the day of. now, it feels like any other day.
No, we really don't. I used to have Sunday and Monday off. I'm in New York, and even still, things close early on Sundays. Nobody wants to hang out because they're dreading going back to work on Monday. I *hated* having Sundays off.
I'm not opposed to this
It wasn't that long ago that Sundays were like this in the US. I remember it very well even in the early 90s. So many stores we're closed on Sunday. Today Hobby Lobby and Chik Fila are the only ones.
if you think retail or major corporations are going to let this fly you are out of your mind. It's done and its not going to be reversed. I am totally for having blue laws again and closing on Sunday but unfortunately that ship has sailed.
Fuck no
I have a 4 day work week. And I still wouldn’t want to be forced to stay home all day.
Even in a purely pragmatic sense, a sabbath is a good idea and maybe we should think about doing that.
Agreed, but we all know it won’t happen.
But think about the shareholders! How would they be able to afford their 4th summer home if people don’t consume every single day?
The invisible workers still have to work on Sundays.
I haven't thought about it, but a quiet break on Wednesdays would be absolutely breathtakingly awesome. Work 2 days, BREAK, work 2 more days, WEEKEND. Beautiful. Perfect. 10/10 no notes let's do this right now
A Siesta is the common ground
Looking back, the beginning of the pandemic was kinda fun for this reason. Nobody was doing anything except chilling at home , no expectations, no deadlines, "two weeks to slow the spread" I'll never forget it.
You call grovelling at the feet of Christ "doing nothing"?
Lived in Germany, loved the everything closed Sundays. Now I live in Thailand, non stop party coffee restaurant boozing music fireworks noise and yeah longing for German Sundays
It’s like this in Israel on Saturday because it’s Shabbat, everything (not literally everything but a ton of stuff) shuts down including public transportation which is really annoying. The people who keep Shabbat are gonna do it anyway why does everyone else have to be limited
Chick Fil A does this and Reddit mocks them.
For a different take, go to Israel and things shutdown Friday evening, and reopen Saturday evening…
I didn't know how great these Sundays were until I left Germany. Now I miss the these calm days.
This used to be the case here in NL, in some towns it still is. Now theres even supermarkets open op Christmas. I actually agree with you that its good for society if things slow down and everyone just gets a break
That "nothing", unfortunately, requires other people to be on the clock. Wanna hit up Taco Bell? Oh, closed because of blue laws. Wanna see a movie? Oh, blue laws. Outdoor miniature golf? Blue laws. That park? Nope, blue laws. Nice on paper. But wouldn't work. : (
In a lot of Eu contries it is that way.
Absolutely not. It infuriates me that there aren’t MORE places open 24/7 and that places close on Sunday and Saturday. It wastes so much time for actually productive people.
How about Thursday? I could never get the hang of Thursdays.
Ah yes, the only fully free day when most people can do fun things, like their hobbys? Let's forbid that! Want to go to gym? Nuh uhh. Maybe climbing, karting, bowling, something other than walking in the park? Well, sucks to be you!
If your in the US come live in Pennsylvania, we still have stupid blue laws, tons of shit closed on Sundays
It is normal in other countries. Maybe try including your country in the title. Guessing America ? Cause this is an opinion relevant only for your specific country
Well, when we had the Blue Laws in effect (I'm old, I lived through this shit) not everything was closed on Sundays. Gas stations, some grocery stores, and essential services were all still open, although many had reduced hours. Personally, I like it better with everything open 7 days a week
In America in the mid 80s on Christmas day most everything was closed. Not even the gas stations were open. I blame the building of convenience stores.
Every one should get 3 non working days a week
The problem with this in the US is that many workplaces are 24/7. Most production facilities, hospitals, etc are around the clock. It can totally suck if you are one of the workers and have no place to buy lunch because everything is closed.
This has a privileged take IMHO. Things used to be closed on Sunday including libraries but it was the one day that many common people were able to use those services.
Hell yeah, lazy Wednesdays and a #32HourWorkWeek
Hmmm. Almost like God was on to something with the day of sacred rest.
Been forced to only do certian things on a certian day sounds horrendous. Take my upvote. 👏
Ever since Sunday shopping came into effect family values gave taken a back seat
I think it should be the opposite. More flexible schedules, you get to decide which days and hours a week you work. It might make scheduling harder, but there's always opportunities to go out and do things, and businesses can stay open longer without killing their workers.
Why does everyone need to do that? If you work week days you can do nothing on Sunday. If you work weekends you can do nothing on a day you have off. Don’t see why you need 100% participation
In Europe (before the industrial revolution), people napped several times per day, slept twice per evening and Sundays were a day of "rest and worship". The only thing they did was go to church and then do no work for the rest of the day - save for farmers who would occasionally need to continue tending the lands (depending on the season/weather). The industrial revolution ushered in the culture of "work, work, work" and being as productive as possible. Before the industrial revolution, such a mindset was only really promoted during wartime, when production needed to be maximized. The industrial revolution brought about the mindset of maximum production for the majority of the time. I'm interested to see what will happen once A.I. and automation eventually replace a majority of the workforce. Will we return to pre-industrial revolution production standards (for humans)? After the paradigm shift in the global economy is figured out and things change as most work becomes automated, will humanity spend more time relaxing, pursuing the arts and more intellectual pursuits? Will I even be around to see this? Hard to say. Err, anyway ... You'll find that Sundays are still considered a "day of rest" in many parts of the globe. (Especially in Europe - Primarily Germany). Certain Jewish practitioners also use Saturday as a "Sabbath" or "day of rest".
So what would happen if you were on vacation and staying at a motel? No restaurants, clubs or bars? Would the staff just not come to work and close up the businesses? What about hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities? What about pharmacies? How about USPS, UPS and FedEx? How about gas stations? How about truck drivers? No DoorDash? No childcare? No public transportation, airlines, bus services or trains? And what about no snow plows? No theme parks, ski resorts or beaches? And what would happen if you were on a cruise? No entertainment like concerts, theaters or casinos? And the list could go on and on....