Ask the Germans

[mugabe]

Ok, here's a nice Q&A thread where we can ask the Germans teutonic-related stuff and get well-informed in-depth answers.

Q: What's up with Joschka Fischer?

Q: Have you managed to organise a bottle/can recycling system that is not insane yet?

Q: Why can't you pay with credit cards at many huge German stores?

Q: What do you do on Sundays when you finally have the time for some shopping nut all stores are closed?

 

[Rojar]

Weeeellll not as a German but as an import who has been living in teutonland for about ten years I can give you an even more skewed view on some of those things

Joschka Fischer: Everbody loves a blimp if he stops running he blows up like a balloon.

Recycling: They ARE FINALLY GETTING IT!! (Mostly). It is now possible to bring back ALL generic plastic bottles from the different store chains to ANY store that sells these bottles. (They still havent figured out that the named brand stuff should also be taken by anybody. Example: "Netto" (A very big discount chain) doesnt sell 1,0 L Coke bottles and wont accept them as returnable they only take the standard 1,5 L ones o generic bottles.) But hey even a little progress is good.

Credit Cards: They arent trusted by the majority. Plain and simple. To pay in stores you have to use trusted and approved methods that allow a data collection agency to approve your credit rating every time you make a purchase. (Schufa)...Ok its not so bad that they do it every time but THEY COULD.

Sunday Shopping: They all go to CHURCH AND PRAY










ok now that you have stopped laughing here is the real answer:
You simply drive to the next "Bath" town (Bäderregelung, allows towns/cities that live from tourists to sell things on the weekends too.). They are allowed to have stores open on sundays. Not as long as on normal days but hey a small chance is good.

 

[Huldran]

One thing that I'd ask - why, for bloody hell's sake, 18-rated movies in Germany often appear CUT? Never seen that practice elsewhere.

 

[Alrek]

Why does it seem every time there is a grand coalition in the Bundestag, nothing gets done until the next elections?

 

[MetalCommando]

Weeeellll not as a German but as an import who has been living in teutonland for about ten years I can give you an even more skewed view on some of those things

Joschka Fischer: Everbody loves a blimp if he stops running he blows up like a balloon.

Recycling: They ARE FINALLY GETTING IT!! (Mostly). It is now possible to bring back ALL generic plastic bottles from the different store chains to ANY store that sells these bottles. (They still havent figured out that the named brand stuff should also be taken by anybody. Example: "Netto" (A very big discount chain) doesnt sell 1,0 L Coke bottles and wont accept them as returnable they only take the standard 1,5 L ones o generic bottles.) But hey even a little progress is good.

Credit Cards: They arent trusted by the majority. Plain and simple. To pay in stores you have to use trusted and approved methods that allow a data collection agency to approve your credit rating every time you make a purchase. (Schufa)...Ok its not so bad that they do it every time but THEY COULD.

Sunday Shopping: They all go to CHURCH AND PRAY










ok now that you have stopped laughing here is the real answer:
You simply drive to the next "Bath" town (Bäderregelung, allows towns/cities that live from tourists to sell things on the weekends too.). They are allowed to have stores open on sundays. Not as long as on normal days but hey a small chance is good.

as an ex inhabitant of Germany, I have to say that you definitely enlightened me. but why doesn't Germany trust credirt cards?
Over here, the only cash I carry is bus change

 

[Rojar]

Cant tell you why people dont trust credit cards, debit cards on the other hand are very widely used. As an aside though credit cards are getting more and more popular with internet shopping even though it is going slowly.

(EC!=EC) There are two main forms of debit card and both have an orange blue logo EC and EC. Confusing as hell or me. One is EasyCash and one is ElectronicCash. Lots of people pay with them. Hehe and as to carrying bus change public transport is another thing that annoys the hell outta me.....every city its different if you can pay in the bus or not.

Oh yeah and Happy Birthday....I read that somewhere iirc

 

[Karsten]

Q: What do you do on Sundays when you finally have the time for some shopping nut all stores are closed?

We are enjoying ourselves and the fact that nobody, except the basic jobs that has to be done, has to work. If you are in a sport team you have your matches. Or you go for a walk. You meet friends. or you watch movies you normaly wouldn´t watch on TV while the alcohol slowly leaves your body. The atmosphere is not as on every other day the week. The churches are without any doubt a big crap. But the closed shops on sunday are the best thing they brought to our culture.

 

[Karsten]

Q: What's up with Joschka Fischer?

Yesterday he resigned from the Bundestag. At the beginning of September 2006 Fischer will be a senior fellow of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

 

[Huldran]

We are enjoying ourselves and the fact that nobody, except the basic jobs that has to be done, has to work. If you are in a sport team you have your matches. Or you go for a walk. You meet friends. or you watch movies you normaly wouldn´t watch on TV while the alcohol slowly leaves your body. The atmosphere is not as on every other day the week. The churches are without any doubt a big crap. But the closed shops on sunday are the best thing they brought to our culture.

Not to forget a bunch of days off (religious holidays, whatever they are called)

As for shops closed on Sundays, it seemed odd as fuck to me when I only moved here... but for shopping, there is Saturday as well. Not a prob in fact...you get used to everything.

 

[Zombi]

I would ask what is it with those strangely shaped toilets, but then someone already told me.

 

[MetalCommando]

We are enjoying ourselves and the fact that nobody, except the basic jobs that has to be done, has to work. If you are in a sport team you have your matches. Or you go for a walk. You meet friends. or you watch movies you normaly wouldn´t watch on TV while the alcohol slowly leaves your body. The atmosphere is not as on every other day the week. The churches are without any doubt a big crap. But the closed shops on sunday are the best thing they brought to our culture.

I can see your point to that. In England, saturday and sunday are melting together into a big blur- everyfuckingbody s out on the streets shopping, the cities are full to the brim and no one actually ever takes time to rest.
Besides, when I lived in Germany a lot of places closed at 8 PM on weekdays, so it made life easier for the shoppings- you could do it on the weekdays after work.

 

[MetalCommando]

Cant tell you why people dont trust credit cards, debit cards on the other hand are very widely used. As an aside though credit cards are getting more and more popular with internet shopping even though it is going slowly.

(EC!=EC) There are two main forms of debit card and both have an orange blue logo EC and EC. Confusing as hell or me. One is EasyCash and one is ElectronicCash. Lots of people pay with them. Hehe and as to carrying bus change public transport is another thing that annoys the hell outta me.....every city its different if you can pay in the bus or not.

Oh yeah and Happy Birthday....I read that somewhere iirc

thank you

So, cn I use my master card or my maestro debit crd in Spar at wacken or in the hamburg supermarkets??

 

[Karsten]

I would ask what is it with those strangely shaped toilets, but then someone already told me.

At the international forum on www.spiegel.de the were several pages filled with a discussion about that.
Why does german toilets have a shelf?

 

[Karsten]

thank you

So, cn I use my master card or my maestro debit crd in Spar at wacken or in the hamburg supermarkets??

Maestro definitly. Master at most shops.

 

[MetalCommando]

Maestro definitly. Master at most shops.

That is good. Too bad there isn't a credit card machine on the festival site, it would save a lot of time and money to me and others.