Kultur 10

In the article "The Challenge of Spending Money in Germany," many interesting points regarding the difference between American and German cultural are brought up, specifically those regarding shopping. Americans are known worldwide as big time consumers, leading to shopping at all hours of the day. In fact, we are so consumer driven that our teenagers often hang out at malls on Friday nights. One of the reasons so many shops close early is simply because there is no demand past these hours. Think about the obesity levels in America. Our culture finds 3am munchie runs to 7/11 acceptable. Perhaps 24 hour convenience shops contribute to said obesity levels. On the contrary, German culture has no such thing as a 24 hour convenience shop, keeping them from buying an asinine amount of junk food at all hours of the day. This may not be a considerable aspect in the grand scheme of things, but it is interesting to note. The early closing of storefronts and supermarkets, however, is not a trait special to German culture. In my experience within many European cities, most stores close by 5 and even restaurants close their doors around 9. In Italy, for example, store owners would take a two hour lunch from 1pm to 3pm and still close up shop at 5pm. Keep in mind that they started their day just six hours ago at the ripe old hour of 11am. Most stores arent open on Sunday, even restaurants, so if you're a weary and hungry traveler after a busy Sunday of sightseeing -- whoops. Looks like you'll have to wait for breakfast. Once again, if we relate this back to American culture we see that Americans are stereotyped as always on the go. We have New York City with its nickname "The City That Never Sleeps" as evidence for this. With such high competition hammered into most of our brains as children, we see it necessary to always be on top of things. Sleep comes second to us (especially here at the University of Michigan). Wall Street execs and many of their employes often work 12 to 14 hour days. Meanwhile, their European cousins stroll in for a 4 hour work day. I can't say I'd mind the quiet that storefront closings would bring. Then again, time is money, so quiet time can probably take a back seat.