In general, Sunday sales in Germany is limited to restaurants, cafes, bakery operations, and bars. For almost all other commercial operations....they are supposed to be shut-down. Most German states will allow four Sundays a year for 'special' sales....usually meant for furniture stores.
This all goes back to 1956 law that said all German shops had to close by 2 PM on Saturdays, and 6:30 PM week-days.
In the late 1980s, this law was changed to allow 'late-Thursdays'....which meant you could stay open to 8:30 PM.
In the mid-1990s, this law was amended again....to allow 8:00 PM closing times on week-days, and 4:00 PM on Saturdays.
Around 2004, the law changed yet again to allow Saturday hours to go up to 8:00 PM.
So this discussion going on now....to allow grocery stores and drug stores to be open on Sunday afternoons? It's a somewhat big deal, but not intended to be permanent.
Alot of the pressure against the hours (going back to the 1950s)....relates to religious beliefs that Sunday should be 'holy' and no one should have to work on Sundays.
As for the question....have Germans adapted to the hour changes over the years? Yes. You can walk into various grocery operations at 6 PM and find the bulk of their daily sales are occurring in this period of 5 to 7 PM.
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