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Spaniard; can confirm. 3 hour breaks are simply mandatory for small shops. In the south of the country during summer there is literally no way you can go out un
by mrkrabo 9y ago
Spaniard; can confirm. 3 hour breaks are simply mandatory for small shops. In the south of the country during summer there is literally no way you can go out until... 19 or so if you don't want to die. So if shops closed then, there would be no business.
- davidw 9y agoSmall shops manage to operate in, say, Arizona during those hours. That said, I think Spain's hours are a more natural adaptation to the climate than Arizona's.
- JBReefer 9y agoUntil recently, most Arizonans also grew English-style grass lawns, with water that had to be piped in and species that are certainly not native. Apparently that's rapidly ending, so maybe the standard schedule will change as well someday.
- davidw 9y ago> Apparently that's rapidly ending, so maybe the standard schedule will change as well someday. Those hours are pretty ingrained in US culture, though, and virtually no one (compared to the present population) would live in Arizona without massive amounts of air conditioning anyway, whereas conserving water has a direct economic advantage in the here and now.
- kobeya 9y ago> virtually no one would live in Arizona without massive amounts of air conditioning I presume you mean south of Flagstaff. It's actually quite nice in the north :)
- hueving 9y agoWith the invention of air conditioning and an abundance of solar power during the desert day, it's pretty stupid to let the weather dictate your behavior. People exist in Chicago despite the fact that it would be completely inhospitable without heating sources. The only difference is that air conditioning is a newer invention so people like you view it as some kind of opulent luxury rather than a technological tool like anything else.
- pm90 9y agoYou're comparing 2 different things though. Heating/AC is required for people's survival whereas green lawns in the middle of an arid desert... not so much.
- hueving 9y agoNo I'm not. I'm literally comparing air conditioning to heating. Read my comment again.
- jylam 9y ago> With the invention of air conditioning and an abundance of solar power during the desert day, it's pretty stupid to let the weather dictate your behavior. Not everyone works in an office, though.
- hueving 9y agoSame thing applies to the cold in the North.
- mrkrabo 9y agoTry to go out with 45 degrees, with direct sunlight, etc. Some people will even faint within minutes. Because remember you don't get teleported to the shop, you have to walk.
- baddox 9y agoI'm from a much milder but still hot climate, and while the summer weather probably wouldn't make you faint in minutes, people spent very little time outside of air conditioned homes, cars, and shops, and the towns were designed around that fact.
- valuearb 9y agoIt was 48 degrees in Phoenix a couple weeks ago. We all walked around outside successfully without fainting.
- kondor6c 9y agoI wouldn't say most Arizona homeowners had grass lawns, as far as Phoenix goes, there are districts such as arcadia that have very large lawns, but I would say that is limited to specific areas. There are many plants that are not native that still grow very well ranging from Mediterranean species to some that are from the desert regions of Asia. *edit (Thu Jul 20 13:35:05 EDT 2017) I about parts of Chandler and Gilbert still have water rights tied to the property.
- wavefunction 9y agoYou fly into Phoenix and the rampant waste and misuse of water is obvious. All those lawns and pools sitting idly by while Arizona (and California) drink far too deeply from the Colorado and other rivers.
- valuearb 9y agoArizona has always managed its water supply far better than California. And a flyover is misleading, most houses have natural yards and the lawns are all special summer grass adapted to the heat.
- wavefunction 9y ago>special summer grass adapted to the heat. My point is how much water does it take even for that. If what you were saying is true, I'd expect to see that grass growing all over Phoenix and it would be green rather than red.
- valuearb 9y agoIt does consume water, but again we manage our water well. I think most people are under the mistaken impression that fresh water is in short supply. The problem is that our water supplies could easily be a free market while still being ecologically friendly. They could easily limited to reusable and naturally refreshed sources, and not drain rivers like the Colorado below safe levels. Market prices would ensure water was used efficiently. But instead California gave away massive free water rights to landowners who use it to farm in their deserts. Over 90% of their fresh water is given to farmers to grow crops a little cheaper than farmers in other states who aren't raping water supplies, and so bad farming and water usage drives out good.
- justadeveloper2 9y agoI always thought the Carolinas should do the same thing--no reason to be out doing things in that brutal, mid-day humidity in the summer.
- twobyfour 9y agoMy guess would be that Spaniards are more likely to travel on foot or bicycle than Arizonans.
- backtoyoujim 9y agoWould it be too much to ask Arizona to change, then ?
- hbosch 9y agoGo into a restaurant or small shop during the 3 hours between 2pm and 5pm, and you can see they might as well be closed (generally). Restaurants refer to those hours specifically as "dead hours" in my experience.
- cplanas 9y agoRestaurants closed at 2PM? That's when most of Spaniards start having lunch...
- eloff 9y agoArizona is in the car-centric USA. You walk straight from your car with AC into a shop with AC via the shortest path possible. Spain, like most Europe is a lot more pedestrian/cyclist friendly and I'd imagine that traffic drops off a lot during the heat of the day. I live in Canada which isn't anything near as hot as Arizona or Spain and I walk/cycle everywhere and I specifically avoid going anywhere from 11am-2pm in July/August if I can help it. sample-size=1, your mileage may vary.
- dghughes 9y agoYet another Canadian here yeah we grind to a halt at anything near 30C. I'm in the humid Maritimes it's 28C but with the humidity it feels like 40C.
- bdamm 9y agoOften I think of Canada having the same problems as Arizona, but in reverse (cold instead of hot). Except it sure is convenient that the coldest part of the day is when everyone is asleep.
- dogma1138 9y agoShops manage to be open in the Middle East, Africa and Asia where it gets much warmer than Spain and in many places with much less favorable conditions. I've been to the south of Spain it's hot but 35c isn't unbearable in the middle of the day.
- anigbrowl 9y agoYes, but at the cost of running crazy air conditioning. The only time I visited Phoenix I arrived near lunchtime and was baffled to be wandering around a seemingly modern city where the streets were entirely free of people. I felt like it I was in the opening scene of a zombie movie or something. Personally speaking I've never seen much value in living by the clock if it puts you in conflict with the seasons. The notion that people everywhere should adhere to the same schedule regardless of local conditions is inherently absurd.
- tremendo 9y agoSadly in Phoenix you'll find the streets entirely free of people year-round. Even when the weather is nice (Oct-Apr). I am one who walks, and often wonder if I'm just crazy when I notice I'm pretty much the only human not inside a car just walking about. I also not wonder but know it's true when I realize that hey, it really is too damn hot some days and being outside is just nuts.
- 13of40 9y agoFor the first half of this year, I was walking about 10 miles a day through Seattle suburbs to get to/from work. During that time I think I encountered exactly two other long distance walkers, and everyone else who was outside seemed to be walking to a bus stop or taking their dog out to poop. (I've noticed that a lot of older Indian couples will get out and take a walk around the block in the afternoon, though.) I think it has something to do with cable television and Facebook.
- ido 9y agoNot just Arizona - this happen even right in the middle of downtown & midtown Atlanta, on streets surrounded by skyscrapers on either side. I was visiting in April a few years ago and was really surprised how empty the sidewalks were despite the beautiful weather - you would see more people outside walking in a non-central residential neighborhood in berlin in the rain.
- CydeWeys 9y agoBecause of the way thermodynamics works, it's much more energy efficient to simply move heat around (air conditioning) than it is to create it from scratch (heating). It costs several times the annual energy to live in Maine than it does to live in Phoenix, for example. We could save a substantial amount on our overall national residential energy budget by moving people from cold areas of the country to Phoenix.
- danmaz74 9y agoHow many small shops in Arizona are located in air-conditioned malls though?
- davidw 9y agoEverything is air conditioned in AZ. Very few people would live there otherwise.
- coldtea 9y ago>Small shops manage to operate in, say, Arizona during those hours. With full on blaring air-conditioning and everybody driving around gus-guzzlers to go 1km further down. That's not how Spanish cities are built, or the culture they enjoy.
- alchemism 9y agoIt is the same all over in southern Greece, for the same reasons. Shops in city and country close until the blasting heat of the midday sun is past, then re-open for a few hours. On the islands some would stay open past midnight, which ended up being a fun time to go shopping.