Many tens of thousands of shoppers took advantage of Germany's longer shopping hours over the weekend, streaming into shops after winning a decades-long fight to relax the country's rigidly controlled trading hours.
Shoppers were welcomed by Dixieland jazz bands and glasses of free champagne in some Berlin department stores on Saturday to mark the historic occasion - freedom to stay open to 8 p.m. rather than 4 p.m. on Saturdays.
"We are extremely pleased with the way the business went today," said Detlef Steffens, managing director of department store Kaufhof in Berlin. "There was no drop-off in sales whatsoever after 4 p.m. Turnover kept humming right along."
Some 3,500 of the 4,000 shops in the German capital stayed open beyond 4 p.m. after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government pushed through measures to relax the rules this year.
Retailers are hoping longer hours will lift flagging sales while political leaders hope it will give the slumping economy a badly needed boost. Some economists don't expect the changes to boost sales very much but others point to the psychological impact of the liberalised trading hours.
Steffens said there was no sign business that would have been done during the day had been pushed into the evening - a common fear of unions and those opposed to the liberalisation.
"Even though it was a big football day with the Germany-Scotland match on television and temperatures hit 30 degrees, we fully met our business expectations," said Ulrich von Malotki, director of Kaufhof in Duesseldorf.
"It was a good day for retailers," said Elmar Kratz from Karstadt AG in Essen. "The customers were happy to be here."
The previous opening hours were long a source of frustration to retailers and many consumers, although many unions are bitterly fighting against the longer hours on Saturdays because they say employers refuse bonus payments for the Saturday work.
Shopping on Saturdays was often a tense affair, with staff struggling to cope with stressed customers battling the clock before doors closed at 4 p.m. for the weekend.
Shops may stay open until 8 p.m. on weekdays but are forced to remain shut on Sundays.
Retail sales tumbled three per cent in March compared to February and private consumption slipped in Germany last year for the first time in two decades, helping brake economic growth to 0.2 per cent, the slowest rate in nearly nine years.
Prestige department store Ludwig Beck described last year as the worst year for retailers in the post-war period and was downbeat about the sector's prospects in 2003.
Retailer Metro AG says sluggish sales in Germany are proving the laggard in its business, while upmarket fashion house Hugo Boss has seen a double-digit slide in net profits because of Germany's tough climate for consumers.