Continual Hours

The other day I needed something at the pharmacy and realized it was 3 o’clock—smack in the middle of the afternoon closing time.  Most businesses in Barcelona close for a couple of hours in the afternoon, when folks eat lunch.  Or at least that was the custom.  But then I walked by and found the pharmacy open.  I went in and asked what was going on.  “We’re open continual hours now,” replied the woman behind the register.  Although I have sometimes been frustrated by these midday closings, I found that I’ve gotten used to it.  I’ve learned how to plan my day around And if a small business is open from 10 am – 8 or 9 pm, it makes sense to me that the owner would want to put her feet up for a couple of hours in the afternoon. 

But it seems that the poor economy, and pressures to compete, are causing these businesses to abandon their traditional siestas.  As appreciative as I have become of resting as a valid activity, I feel nostalgic when I see more examples of people working harder and longer just to keep up.  Spain has more policies than most places that protect small businesses—the timing of sales is regulated, for example.  Sales occur once in the winter, and once in the summer. 

Call me old-fashioned, but every year when I think about the unlucky retail employees who have to man their cash registers at 3 am on Black Friday so that loony people can join the stampede for the one flat screen TV that’s being sold for $100, I get sad.  It seems there’s something wrong with a society in which that behavior is normal.  And when I see these shops in Barcelona staying open all day, I wonder if it’s just the first step in a race to the bottom.  Maybe we’re all going to hell in a bucket.