In Poland, chain and franchised grocery stores were smart enough to go into two-shift mode, and are generally open from 6am to 10pm. However, most other stores - and more importantly, services sector, banks and government offices - were not. They work 8 hours a day, smack in the middle of everyone else's workday. It's no surprise so many people in their 20s-40s want to do everything on-line, because it's either that, or taking days off at work for errands (and while you can do some things on Saturdays, banks and government offices don't work over weekends).

This is IMO stupid, and I'm increasingly of the opinion that the society should be run in mandatory shifts. I can't understand why the market won't fix that itself? Why leave all that money on the table? There is huge demand for services open outside regular office working hours. For instance, personally, I chose dentists by their opening hours - most of the money I spent on dental was with a place where I could come at 8pm. In pre-Internet banking era, I would've picked the bank that had branches open past 5pm, if any existed. I don't shop at places open 9-5, because I only have time earlier than that, or later than that. Etc.

</rant>