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Berlin - People in Berlin will soon be able to experience what their counterparts in other European capitals have done for a long time - shop around the clock.
Just in time for Christmas, the city is pioneering the way in loosening the strict regulations on shop opening hours that have been in force for half-a-century.
Starting from Friday people will be able to stroll round a department store at midnight, pick up a tie on the way to work or pop into the supermarket on their way home from a nightclub.
The new rules approved by the Berlin senate earlier this week allow for 24-hour shopping from Monday to Saturday and limited opening hours on up to 10 Sundays a year.
The decision follows a change in federal law earlier this month, allowing Germany's 16 states to set their own opening hours in what is seen as a key test of Germany's ability to adapt to change.
Barely a decade ago, most stores in Germany were forced to close at 6.30 pm on weekdays and 2 pm on Saturdays, with most Sunday shopping banned by the constitution.
At present shopping is still largely restricted to working hours on weekdays, with essentially no stores open at all on Sundays.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and city tourism officials are hoping the changes will boost the economy of the capital, which is saddled with a massive 62 billion euros (84 billion dollars) debt.
But the speed which the Berlin senate pushed through the changes surprised many store operators, who were not expecting the longer opening hours to come into force until December 1.
Many stores will not be able to adapt so quickly because they are still in negotiation with their works councils over a change in working practices that would allow them to take advantage of the new rules.
"It's all happened so quickly, we haven't got enough time," said Ulrike Moeslinger, an executive with the French-owned Galeries Lafayette department store on Friedrichstrasse, a short walk from Checkpoint Charlie.
"We've got more than 250 employees who have to adjust to the new situation. We can't manage that so quickly," Moeslinger told the newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
Moeslinger hinted that Galeries Lafayette would stick to their original date of December 1. Other department stores like Karstadt Wertheim and KaDeWe indicated they would do the same.
Bucking the trend is the media department store Dussmann, which plans to stay open after midnight on Friday and throw a "Shop Closing Hours Killer Party."
"An international city like Berlin simply cannot afford to let tourists spend their money in other countries just because they find shop doors closed after an evening visit to a restaurant," said the store's owner Peter Dussmann.
But the changes are not expected to make a great deal of difference initially, according to Nils Busch-Petersen, general manager of the retail trade association for Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.
"There won't be a major eruption," he said. Most stores will experiment with their hours until finding a formula that fits them best - something which could take a year, he said.
But most stores are expected to take advantage of the busy shopping period in December and open from 1 to 8 pm on the four Sundays before Christmas.
Sunday opening does not go down well with Church leaders. Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairman of council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, accused the Berlin senate of "a cloak and dagger operation" which he said would cause other states to follow suit.
Trade unions are also unhappy with the longer opening times and have vowed to seek extra compensation for employees forced to work unsocial hours because of the changes.
