Austria
With the exception of the country being predominantly Catholic rather than Protestant, the German situation very much applies for Austria, too. Until the 1990s, all shops closed on Saturday noon (mostly at 12) and not reopened until Monday morning. Entrepreneurs such as Richard Lugner lobbied for an expansion of shopping hours, and laws are gradually being changed, and more and more exceptions granted. Meanwhile, as in Germany, outside regular shopping hours gas stations and train stations of big cities have taken on the role of Nahversorger (supplying the local population with groceries).
Read more about this topic: Shopping Hours
Famous quotes containing the word austria:
“All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)