Late buy

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Late purchase in Berlin

Spätkauf , Spätverkauf or Späti (short for Spätverkaufsstelle ) is a term used mainly in Berlin , Dresden , Leipzig and some other East German cities for a convenience shop that is open outside of normal shop opening hours (in some cases around the clock). In a late-night shop, drinks and tobacco products are mostly sold, but occasionally also magazines and groceries as well as everyday items. Some late purchases also offer Internet access and serve as a post office in retail. There are around 900 such shops in Berlin. They are mostly run by families of Turkish or Asian origin and are considered part of Berlin's Kiez culture . There are comparable shops, albeit not under the name Spätkauf , in the Ruhr area , in the Rhineland and in Hamburg .

history

Late sales outlets (in short: late sales) emerged under this name in the second half of the 20th century in the GDR and served to supply shift workers with basic food and luxury goods. In most cases they were normal grocery stores of the HO or Konsum with only different opening times. While all regular shops closed at 6 p.m., late sales were open until 7 or 8 p.m., in rare cases and in larger cities even longer. Depending on local necessities, late-night sales outlets also closed at 6:30 p.m. or opened as early sales before the usual shop opening hours.

After the political change , the term was also adopted by shops in the former West Berlin that were open beyond the regular opening hours.

Legal status and current development

Contrary to the usual practice of late sales are allowed on Sundays from 7 to 16 o'clock, loudly Berlin Shop Hours Act only flowers, print media, bakery and dairy products are sold. Tourist offers and drinks are only allowed between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sundays. The sale of alcohol is not allowed on Sundays.

In March 2012, a resident from Prenzlauer Berg reported 48 shops that violated the shop closing law to the Berlin public order office . As a result, fines between 150 and 2500 euros were imposed on several dealers. The convenience store Kollwitz 66 later became noticeable with a counter-campaign, in which he aushängte name and telephone number of persons reporting on business and also on Facebook published .

In a radio interview, the Berlin city councilor Torsten Kühne stated that the public order office must get to the bottom of every violation of the shop closing law. However, the Berlin public order office did not have the funds for this.

In October 2012, the CDU in Pankow campaigned for a change in the law that would have legalized the Berlin late night sales outlets. However, this failed.

A petition with the hashtag # RettetdieSpätis was started on the website change.org in June 2015 , which aims to amend the shop closing law and equate late purchases with petrol stations and train station shops . For violations of the Sunday sales ban, fines of 35,000 euros were imposed on Spätkauf operators in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district in 2015 and fines of 70,000 euros in the Neukölln district . Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen called for an exemption for late purchases on Sundays for a few hours, which was not supported by the governing parties SPD and CDU. The member of the pirate group Martin Delius puts the proposal up for discussion to convert late-night purchases into charging stations for pedelecs , which could legally equate them with petrol stations.

A late-night sale located in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district was forbidden to open on Sundays in 2016 by the responsible district office under threat of a fine of 1500 euros. After the owner had sued the Berlin Administrative Court, the court ruled in May 2019 that late-night sales in Berlin had to remain closed on Sundays. The reasoning states that Spätis have everyday products in their range and are geared towards the unspecific supply of the local area. This meant that the shops did not fall under a corresponding exception in the Berlin Shop Opening Act for tourist shops.

Comparable businesses

While the small shops with long opening times are unknown in some places, there are facilities comparable to late-night shopping , especially in the Ruhr area , Rhineland and Hamburg, under the name Trinkhalle , Kiosk or Büdchen . Originally, shops where customers stepped outside a window were also widespread, but small shops are now common. In addition to pure sales, these also play a role as a “social space” or as a place for the party and nightlife culture of cities. In Cologne alone there are around 1,000 “Büdchen”. The facilities are part of the city's culture, research objects, the goal of city tours, publications and photo motifs for wall calendars.

Outside of Germany

In France , shops comparable to Spätkauf are mainly run by traders of Arab origin. Similar types, so-called peripteros, are common in Greece .

In New York there used to be around 1,500 newsstands that, in addition to newspapers, also sold drinks, sweets or tobacco products, often through a window or hatch. The number has now dropped to 300, most of which are in Manhattan .

term

The interior of a late night shop in Berlin, 2011

The term "Späti" was included in the Duden in 2017 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Spätkauf  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Späti  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Online petition wants to save the Berlin Spätis . In: Berliner Morgenpost
  2. a b Cult late-night shopping in Berlin: Party at the Kiez-Krämer. At: Spiegel-Online .
  3. collision. arte, accessed February 29, 2016 .
  4. Until midnight. At: userpage.fu-berlin.de
  5. Spätis should also rest on the seventh day. In: Prenzlauer Berg News .
  6. Dispute over late shopping opening times. In: Der Tagesspiegel .
  7. The public order office doesn't take it that seriously. In: Prenzlauer Berg News .
  8. A chance for the late night of the capital. In: The world .
  9. Online petition wants to save the Berliner Spätis In: Berliner Morgenpost
  10. Sabine Beikler: Shop opening law in Berlin Greens: Spätis should be allowed to open on Sundays. In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 7, 2016, accessed March 8, 2016 .
  11. "Spätis" must always remain closed on Sundays (No. 21/2019) , judgment of the 4th Chamber of the VG Berlin of May 22, 2019 (VG 4 K 357.18)
  12. Kiosk, pump room, Späti, Büdchen. Retrieved on March 29, 2020 (German).
  13. ^ Hannah Howard: How New Yorkers Are Fighting to Save the City's Struggling Newsstands. May 12, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  14. Selfie, Späti, Merkel - Duden contains 5000 new words , waz.de