From January 1st 2007 the current rules on shop opening / closing hours will be relaxed considerably, meaning that shops and stores can more-or-less choose their own opening times, at least from Monday to Saturday. Sunday closing will remain the rule with the current system of four city-wide Sundays (verkaufsoffene Sonntage) with limited opening being permitted each year, although additionally shops may open on a further two Sundays of their choice.

Although most shops now open until the currently permitted latest closing time of 8pm, it looks like only the larger department stores and some of the more central shopping centres / malls will extend their opening hours, generally until 10pm.

For more information on general opening hours see our guide "Shopping in Berlin"; and for shopping outside of the usual opening hours see our page on "Out-of-hours shopping".

Posted at 7:27 AM in