Store opening times: the value for your money

In its infinite wisdom, and after nine months of being pregnant, the ministry of trade and industry finally gave birth to a new suggestion for the store opening times.

I remember when stores were allowed to be open on weekdays till 20 and on Saturdays till 18. Then they decided to allow them to be open on weekdays until 21. Then they allowed them to be open on Sundays in December. Then also on summer. Then they allowed all the small (under 400 square meters) stores to be open on any Sunday.

I have always suspected that after that they will start making a separate law for each particular Sunday, just to show the people that the ministry and the parliament are doing a lot of work for our tax money. Well, not quite but almost.

The new idea that the ministry came up with is to allow stores to be open on Sundays also in September and October, but make them close at 20 rather than at 21 instead.

I wonder, are they all stupid, or do any of them own any of those stores in Kamppi and asematunneli that are allowed to be open till 22? Or do they think they have invented perpetual motion by moving the evening opening hours from 20 to 21 and back every few years.

For fuck's sake, free the opening times already and be done with it. I know that there are countries in Europe with dumber opening times laws than Finland, but are there any that have this continuous opening times struggle? What's the fucking point in having stores closed on Sundays from January to April? What's the fucking point in trying to move opening hours from 21 to 20?

Maybe we should restrict the opening hours of the ministry of trade and industry to the nights when there is full moon? It makes no sense, of course, but neither does anything else.