And all the shops are shut. Now, closing them for Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, Corpus Christi, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary or on major national holidays - this I can understand. It's a Catholic country. But Pentecost? No parades with donkeys and palm fronds, no greetings cards (Życzę Wam Wesołego/Spokojnego Zesłania Ducha Świętego)...
I should have realised, having last night stayed up to one am to bring Moni home after singing at the Dominican Abbey (as happened last year). But it occurred to none of us that all the shops would be shut (with the exception of Sklep Osiedlowy Mariola, though by the looks of the place, I don't think they'd take too kindly to credit cards).
I blame the Judeo-Masonic-Cyclistic-Bruxello-Bolshevist media (Gazeta Wyborcza, TVN) for not warning the nation of this impending hiatus to mindless consumerism. Had my morning paper and 24-hour news channel informed me earlier that the shops would be shut on Sunday, I'd have done the weekly shop yesterday. But no, they had nothing better to report but the floods.
Seriously though, the decision to close all shops on Pentecost is I am sure not a popular one (except for that one-thirtieth of the population that one could describe as National Catholics). It was passed in the dying days of the PiS-LPR-Samoobrona coalition, and like many questionable legacies left by that ill-starred government, the current one has done nothing to reverse it.
Tomorrow evening after work I shall be forced to drive to the hypermarket and jostle with vast crowds of similarly disgruntled consumers.
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6 comments:
You can always order online from Piotr & Paweł, we always do that :)
Orders > 250zł are delivered free, and the prices are very good too.
I read about the store closures on this website yesterday, while reading the river rising updates. http://www.zw.com.pl/artykul/366830_Zielone_Swiatki____sklepy_nieczynne.html By the looks of it, another day off for everyone again is coming soon, June 11 or is it 10. I think the website got it wrong here. I must say, I think Poland is in the top five when it comes to bank/government holidays and vacation days. Michael, can you bum off some food from your neighbors? In reality, with the potential flood situation, the stores should have been opened longer, to make sure people got ample supplies of water and food.
Ah, so that's why the shops were closed this evening!
Do you complain when you are forced to have a free day off work because its a national holiday? Most people are happy with this arrangement.
So it seems now you're in the shoes of Mr Irate who's meandering between the shelves less than half a mile from where I'm writing, trying not swear when another disgruntled customer hits you with his elbow or because the hypermarket has just run out of carrot, meat or sth else.
The "hostile media conspiracy" thread is an uncanny example of God knows what. Should they really inform people that shops will be closed in a country when over 90 per cent of citizen are Catholic? Shouldn't they know themselves?
And after all I'm not against shops being opened on Sundays. There's a huge demand for it and the evidence we observe around proves the supply finds catering to customers quite profitable. But I never visit any shop on Sunday, nor my parents do. It's not because we're religious, like to the West we've come off the mindless cosumerism and we realise there are plenty of other pastime activities to indulge in on Sunday, other than shopping, watching TV and going to church.
Sunday is good time to:
a) take a family trip,
b) cycle,
c) read books and newspapers,
d) cook sth nice,
e) take care of the garden, but without using grassmower, not to disturb neighbours' peace,
f) go for a walk,
g) fix something at home,
h) meet friends,
i) watch a good film.
And when it comes to banned trade on National Holidays, I'm for. Shop-workers have a right to have a day off and shopkeepers have a right to stand behind their counters on their own and reap a bonus for working on such a day.
I think Marcin is right. There's shopping I like (fresh fruit, veg, fish, meat, wines etc), and shopping I don't (mineral water, catfood, toilet paper, detergents etc). The latter (which makes up 75% of the bulk if not cost of my weekly shop) I should order online and thus I can cut out the unpleasant aspects of shopping.
Come the RFID revolution (once the price of producing the tags falls to an economic level), there will be no more checkouts. Simply load up your trolley (the LCD panel on the handle will tot up how much you've spent) and when you're done, wheel it through the gate, tap in your PIN and press 'accept' - and wheel the trolley to your car.
The shop workers who man the tills at Auchan Piaseczno will have the right to 365 days off.
Like smiths, millers and ploughmen before them.
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