{"id":16033,"date":"2016-02-16T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=16033"},"modified":"2016-02-23T10:51:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T15:51:46","slug":"a-belgian-in-the-north-country-night-is-for-sleeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2016\/02\/16\/a-belgian-in-the-north-country-night-is-for-sleeping\/","title":{"rendered":"A Belgian in the North Country: night is for sleeping"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had just finished doing the dishes, around 8 pm on a Saturday eve, when my host mom announced we were going to the grocery store. I was surprised and asked, “Are there stores open after 8?” It seems the United States has 24-hour stores. My first thought was, “Do people really do their grocery shopping at night here in the North Country?”<\/p>\n

Now let me tell you about Belgium<\/h2>\n

Stores are not open 24 hours a day. There are night stores but it\u2019s not the same concept. Basically, it means they open late in the evening and they close early in the morning. You can buy the same things as you can buy in the grocery store, but you won\u2019t pay the same. If you fancy a cheap wine, you better not forget to shop during the day. Night stores buy their items in normal grocery stores but they add a little fee for being open at night. So they are without a doubt more expensive than day stores.<\/p>\n

I worked as a student in a grocery store for almost three years, and to be honest, I can\u2019t imagine myself working during the night. The store I worked in is open from 8:30 am till 8 pm. But the first working shift starts at 6 am. Early birds prepare for opening. Fridays are different. Then customers can push their carts through the store until 9 pm. Of course there is more than one supermarket chain in Belgium. All chains have their own openings hours, but most of them close between 6 and 8 pm.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Opening hours Colruyt. Photo: Mattias A.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sorry, we\u2019re closed<\/h2>\n

Stores are closed on Sunday. You might find a store or two open on Sunday near the place you stay or live. And if they are open, mostly they close at noon. So if you are planning to have a big lunch or party with friends on Sunday, you better do your shopping another day. Also, because the stores that are open are crowed with all those people who forgot something during their grocery shopping.<\/p>\n

Change for Belgium?<\/h2>\n

Belgians do not really feel the need to open a grocery store at night, or at least not in the same way as, for example, Price Chopper. Maybe some people might like it because it is useful if you forgot something.<\/p>\n

I asked some of my friends in Belgium about this. “I think it\u2019s useful to have it, but we do not really need it,” said Milo. C\u00e9line agrees with him and said, “I think it is useful for if I forgot something, but I prefer stores to be open on Sunday rather than at night.” Chelsea thinks it is mostly useful for work related reasons. She said, “It is useful for those who are working in shifts, so they can go to the store after work, and just paying the same as during the day.”<\/p>\n

Employees of supermarkets do not really see a reason to be open at night. “It is already hard for young mothers who work here to find daycare for their children during the day, at night that might even be harder,” Sonja said. Natalie said, “It\u00a0might affect the atmosphere. And to be honest, customers have enough time during the day to do their shopping.”<\/p>\n

Student @work<\/h2>\n

You might not be familiar with the term student @work. In Belgium working as a student means that you are allowed to work 50 days a year without paying taxes. Students receive the total amount of money as long as they do not break any of the rules of the student contract.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Melissa Callaert is working as an intern at North Country Public Radio for the Spring 2016 semester.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had just finished doing the dishes, around 8 pm on a Saturday eve, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[15794,9,15797],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16033"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16100,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions\/16100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}