From: matt@cray.com (Matthew Marchese)
Subject: Re: shopping hours
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 18 Aug 92 06:38:03 CDT

In article <1992Aug17.182645.14834@dragon.acadiau.ca> alan@dragon.acadiau.ca (Alan W. McKay) writes:
>harlow@chinet.chi.il.us (Steven A Harlow) writes:
>
>>I wunder why the stores aren't open later in Germany.
>>It seems that some entrepeneur could make a fortune by opening
>>a store at later hours for those who wanted to shop later.
>>I asked my cousin why the stores aren't open later.
>>She said nobody wants to work odd hours.
>>What, not even to make money?
>
>My best guess is that the American system is much more geared toward
>creating such an (economically) lower class of people who would jump at
>the chance to get any job, including one at a 7/11 which pays only
>minimum wage (in the States that have one) and forces you to work odd
>hours, while the German system provides better/better paying jobs so
>
Yes, we evil Americans are only concerned with creating as many poor
people as possible by providing thousands of lousy jobs at strange 
hours of the day and night...:) I happen to work for a company whose
production line operates 24 hours a day. The people who work odd
shifts earn 7%-10% more per hour than the day-shifters. Incidentally,
the minimum wage is *Federally* mandated so *all* States have a
minimum wage. What longer store hours in America really seems to
indicate is that the average American values convenience and service
much more than Europeans who seem to accept rude salespersons and
government-sponsored economic meddling much more readily. It's the
price they pay for being much more secure in their jobs and within
the social framework. Finally, I can comment that the shorter stores
hours in Germany seem to result in quite a bit of job-absenteeism
on the part of employees who take a couple of hours off work here and
there to go do their shopping during the work day since the stores
close about an hour after the average work day ends.d

>the people are not forced to take these types of jobs, and thus there
>is no demand for them.
>
Whose *forcing* people to take low-paying jobs? If they're so many 
terrific jobs in Germany why are people working at Tankstellen?
What's lacking in the States is proper education and training in
the workforce, not good jobs. Besides, working in "fast-food"
joints helped put me through college. It wasn't great work but it
helped pay the bills.

>My girlfriend works at a coffee shop in Germany and makes DM 50 for 3
>hours work.  My friend works at one here in Canada and makes $5 an
>
This could explain why the average cost of goods and services in
Deutschland is 50 to 100 percent higher than in the US..:) (I'm
quoting from personal experience here, not statistics) I can tell
you how tiring it is to go shopping in Germany. First, you travel
a 100 kilometers on a Saturday with 50 million other Germans to
get to the nearest IKEA or Dodenhof so you can find a reasonable
selection of goods at a somewhat less-than ridiculous price. When
you get there you fight your way through the crowds and get down
on your knees to beg one of the incredibly rude salespersons to
help you only to find that they don't have the item you want in
stock and you have to wait 6 weeks to have it delivered. Of 
course i'm exaggerating here (but only about getting down on my
knees :)). It's no wonder that the German economy is based so
heavily on exports. The natives don't have any time to buy anything!!

Whew! I feel better now!..:)

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*  "Don't just sit there like a bump on a log!..ROCK! ROCK!!" - Daffy Duck    *
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Matt Marchese	    The opinions expressed here are not those of my employer, *
Cray Research  	    my wife, my church, or myself...But they are the opinions *
DKRZ                of Elvis as revealed to me through the medium of my pet   *
Hamburg, Germany    hamster, Lee Harvey Oswald...                             *
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.german