Every coin has 2 sides. As an employee, I say “Great, only 40 hour a week and 8 weeks off, with not as much pressure to work overtime”….But as a customer, I am seeing the downside.
First, all shops are closed on Sunday…that means all grocery stores, clothing stores, even the large chains like Ikea. Additionally, they usually close by 5 PM on Saturday. This means if you plan to shop AT ALL on the weekend, you better not have a sleep-in-late day on Saturday. Especially if you work late during the week, this is the only day you have for any store related errand. This includes the services like the copy shop and beauty parlor. I think gas stations and churches are the only places open on Sunday.
During the work week, the stores close on Monday morning to make up for the fact that they had to work on Saturday. During the entire week, then non-grocery stores close at around 6. Luckily the grocery stores stay open until 8 or 9, so you can at least grocery shop. This is imortant, since some refrigerators such as ours are mini-fridges. You need to shop every other day for space reasons. In most of the cities, Thursday is late-night shop night. All the shops stay open until 8-9. So, plan ahead and do your shopping on Thursday night and Saturday day.
For the grocery store, you have to pay about .50 for a plastic bag. Dutch people have large bags they bring into the shop so as not to spend extra on bags. You also have to bag you own food, so remember to put the eggs on top! If you want a shopping cart, you have to put a half-euro coin into a lock to get the cart out. You get it back when you return the cart, so this is a huge incentive not to walk off with the cart.
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