..deserves a bustling night? Last Friday, Munich reluctantly crawled out of its small town shell and had its first long night of shopping – stores were allowed to remain opened until midnight. Oh My! I hadn’t gone night shopping since my days in the sunshine state. It made sense in Florida to shop in the evening – it beat the blistering daytime heat and the crowd hysterics. However this evening in Munich proved just the opposite.
For some reason the whole event just had to coincide with a poorly planned night of cultural fanfare. This has to do with Munich having a hard time getting out this old fogey attitude about open hours for businesses. Already 10 out of the 16 states in Germany are cool with doing away with the opening hour rules. But Bavaria is bull-headed against the change. Integrating a streetfest into the whole schabang was the compromise.
Sure it was nice to see street performances like a jazz trio or Flamenco music and dancing. However I think it just distracted from the purpose of the evening. Shopping. One can see impromptu performances with more magic on any given beautiful evening in the city center. And whoever organized the “Nachtschwärmer” performance in the Karstadt near Karl’s Tor needed his head examined. Why did it take place inside the store and not in the cool open air in front of the store? If you weren’t in the first two rows near the tiny ’stage’ or looking from the five floors above you could only bob your head to the drums and see an occasional foot from the aerialist act. The whole show wasn’t even conducive to shopping because it stopped up the escalators and aisles with on-lookers.
Still it was a wonder to see a brightly lit Hugendubel or Sport-Scheck busy with people looking at books or trying out the latest rock-climbing gear. 
There were people carrying shopping bags but the majority of us were just browsing and awed that we could be in the stores after dark and still we are months away from the winter solstice.
In order to fully participate in the spirit of the evening I did by something after normal shopping hours. I bought a banana. Just because. I waited in line with the other night owls and actually felt a little bad as the middle-aged cashier looked down at his watch with a sigh and then at the long line of customers. As much as it’s fun to shop at night, I question if it is all that necessary. I didn’t even need the banana I could have waited until the morning. I’m pretty well adjusted to the 9am to 8pm Monday thru Saturday constraints. But if its good for business, I’ll be there with my curlers on.
I always feel bad for the poor people who have to work so late. I can be so irritated if I find that the shops closed at 8pm, and I really need something at 8:10pm – but those people have families too, and they still need to get home. It can’t be a nice job, but I suppose it pays the bills?
Still I feel terribly sorry for them.
Wow, crazy fun! I long accepted the restricted hours here, but as other things are increasingly grinding me down, well … late night shopping sounds like fun.
They tried this here in Kiel too. The streets where crowded, the jazz bands played, there where dancers and so on. But nobody went shopping. It was more like an event.
I share Dizzy Dee´s feelings.
Cool site. DeboHobo.com’s link brought me here. I wouldn’t do the “Nachtschwärmer” myself. But it sure looks like a great way to strech yourself…