Nov 15, 2026, 5:21 PMAustrian legislation is weird. If you want to buy a bottle of Coke and a pack of cookies on a Sunday, from one of the few shops that are open on Sundays, at the railway station, you need to enter the shop twice and pay them separately. It is divided using temporary fences into two parts for legal reasons that are totally unclear to me. But maybe somebody can explain?
Nov 15, 2026, 5:43 PMAh, the reason is apparently that only shops up to a specific limit in size can be open on Sundays at stations. So they cleverly divide this shop into two separate ones on Sundays.
One wonders how long silly policies like this will persist. But I guess Austrians are quite conservative, even in Vienna. "Why would any decent person need to go to the shop on the Lord's Day".
@tml At least you can buy stuff – in Slovenia the stores are closed on Sundays.
@tml We had almost exactly similar legislation in Finland less than 25 years ago. People forget.
Nov 15, 2026, 5:54 PM@tkalvas There was no size limit on the shops at railway stations that were allowed to be open, though. I do remember how one had to take the bus to the station if one needed to buy some groceries on a Sunday. (If one was lucky to live in a city with a big station and shops there. Which, I guess, more or less meant only Helsinki?)