[ugh]

In the city I grew up in (in Bavaria) every store has to close by 8pm and no store can open on Sundays. The exception are bakeries and gas stations. (I also think that stores inside of train stations are exempted. And just so there is no misunderstanding, restaurants, cafes and pubs are of course also exempt from this.)

Where I grew up there is not a single open grocery store anywhere after 8pm or on Sundays for hundreds of kilometers. That makes a difference to places where stores can legally remain open longer.

I’m currently living in Thuringia where stores can be open until 10pm on weekdays – and sure, many smaller stores and even the big shopping mall still opt to only open until 8pm, but thee are always one or two big grocery stores that are actually open until 10pm.

The quantitative difference between no open stores and one or two open stores may be small, the qualitative difference, however, is big.