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Things get repaired
Germany has a strong instinct against throwing things away. Clothes get mended, shoes get resoled at a Schuster, and most towns have a Änderungsschneiderei that will shorten trousers for a few euros while you wait. Flea markets are an institution rather than a novelty — the Flohmarkt is a genuine weekend activity, often in a park or a schoolyard, and buying second-hand carries no stigma at any income level. In the last decade this has been formalised into the Repair-Café movement: volunteer-run sessions in community centers where people bring broken toasters and bicycles and are helped to fix them rather than having it done for them. There are several hundred across the country. The same instinct runs through the deposit system on bottles from Lesson 8 and the separate bins for paper, packaging, glass by color, and organic waste, which visitors find bewildering for about a fortnight. The practical advice when clothes shopping: expect fewer but better things, expect shops to shut at eight and not open at all on Sunday, and expect a paper bag to cost money.