When we arrived in Austria on the 17th of September, a culture shock awaited us straight away. We left Ireland in a hurry and haven’t found the time to get all our presents completed. Shops in Austria are forced by the government to close at 5pm. Now our plane landed at 4pm, it took us over half an hour to leave the airport, and we reached the shopping centre at 4:50pm. So we where just in time, or not? The shop assistant refused us access to the shop, because the queue at the teller was already way too long, and they could impossibly finish all the customers till 5pm. Instead of opening a 2nd desk, the sales woman was standing outside the shop telling customers to leave! We faced more of this friendly, Austrian, customer care on Monday. So I wouldn’t call it an exception, I would call it the rule.
Strangely enough, some seem to adapt to this rude customer care quite fast. When I was still living in Austria, I might snarl back, but I willingly accepted this rudeness. Partly because everybody can have a bad day, but mostly because the government shares responsibility for the current situation. For the last 50 years, there is a rather paradox situation going on Austria. You must know that since the early 11th century, or for almost 1000 years, Austria’s traditional shopping day is Sunday. This is coming from the Marktrecht, the law who was regulating if a town was allowed to hold a market. And markets where usually held on Sundays after church and lunch. The farmers where selling the fruits of there work. Over the time the Marktrecht lost it’s importance, but markets where still held on Sunday, when people had time for shopping. Till 1958, when the Ladenschlussgesetz was initialized. From there on, the only market you are still allowed to hold on Sunday is a Flohmarkt, a garage sale.
Main reason for this truly pointy-headed law was an election pledge and the idea to protect the salesclerks. In my opinion, it only made things worse, and here is why: Salesclerks are generally less qualified, and therefore easily exchangeable, employees. This ultimately results in a bad pay and treatment. Now because shops have to close at 5, 6 or 7pm weekdays, clerks don’t get paid for the time they serve customers after that. And if they argue, they are going to be replaced. In my opinion, the government should get rid of this boundary of the natural market, like the Germans for example, and should strongly regulate the minimum salary and over hour bonus. But instead, it is helping the shops by loosing over hours regulations. Oddly enough the majority of Austrians, who by now seem to believe that Sunday has always been a non shopping day, are in favour of the Ladenschlussgestz. As a programmer, people who in general have the reputation of working till late night, I always suffered under that law and am now enjoying the pure luxury of buying some milk and water after work. But even more importantly, I am now witnessing every day that all the arguments, the Austrians have against 24/7, are wrong.
