There's two sides of the medal: In general, I do agree with you. However, large store chains (think walmart) have a larger lever in the power game between employer and employee, so they can force long working hours. The idea was to prevent that. The laws have been relaxed very much though - in Berlin there's 24h supermarkets and stores that open on sundays. However, in the smaller towns stores still close at 6 or 8, but it's more of a habit than a law.