A recent change to the rules for shops and restaurants in Bavaria have effectively banned the sale of potato chips – or crisps as they are known in British English – after 8pm in the German state.
Munich’s university district reportedly has a party problem. Residents there have been complaining about young people making noise on the street late into the evening, leaving their beer bottles and trash behind.
But the Free State of Bavaria has a solution: the sale of chips has been banned after 8pm in the offending neighbourhood.
News of the chips ban (Chips-verbot in German) has drawn backlash online.
“No chips in Germany after 8pm,” says a young woman in a TikTok video with nearly 100,000 views. “Because everybody knows eating chips is like the gateway to doing all bad things…”
To be clear, her statement there is not completely accurate. The limit on selling potato chips does not apply in all of Germany but only in Bavaria – and appears to have been most heavily enforced in Munich’s university district of Maxvorstadt so far.
German media reports spoke of five late-night kiosks (Spätis) in Munich that have been particularly affected by the ban on sales of salty snacks from 8pm.
“Most of my sales are from 10pm onwards,” a kiosk operator told T-online, suggesting that his business was threatened by the new rules.
A debate on the chip ban has been centred around Spätis found on or near Schellingstraße in the Maxvorstadt neighbourhood, which is is a popular area for nightlife.
In fact, the chip ban is not actually a brand new rule in itself but part of a broader tightening of Bavaria’s rules for restaurants and market operating hours.
Generally shops with staff must close by 8pm in Bavaria, due to the states shop closing law (Ladenschlussgesetz). But some Spätis get around the regulation, because of a regulatory loophole in which they are classified as a “mixed business” rather than a retailer or a restaurant.
These Spätis can sell bottled beer, but aren’t allowed to “serve” it – in other words customers can buy beer to go but not consume it on-site.
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According to the law, after 8pm these kiosks are only allowed to sell “bottled beer, non-alcoholic beverages, tobacco and confectionery”.
The sale of spirits is also prohibited after 8pm.
Bavaria’s shop closing rules were updated as of August 1st, but in Maxvorstadt enforcement of the chip ban has reportedly been ramped up, alongside a temporary ban on late-night beer sales, in an effort to crack down on noise and partying that has triggered complaints in the neighbourhood.
Commentators online have responded to the chip ban with sometimes humorous critical takes. In one video a woman nervously opens a bag of chips on the street underneath text that reads, “POV [point-of-view] Germany after 8pm”. In another clip, a man explains the chips ban in German punctuated by outbursts of increasingly colourful language directed at the people who thought this was a good idea.
Mayor repeals beer ban from Friday
As part of an effort to tamper down on partying and noise in the city centre, the sale of beer at Spätis was also prohibited after 10pm in Munich for about two weeks.
But mayor Dominik Krause (Greens) walked back the limit on beer sales this week.
“I have lifted the beer ban from 10pm at the Spätis in the university district for the time being, valid from this Friday,” he said in a video shared on his Instagram on Tuesday.
“As politicians, we can’t always say that there is a need for open spaces for young people – and then put them on the back burner, when it comes down to it” he wrote in a caption on the video.
READ ALSO: ‘Not unfriendly’ – Is Munich really an unwelcoming city for foreigners?
But he also cited garbage left on the streets and residential buildings being peed on as problems that needed to be resolved in Maxvorstadt.
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Krause called on all Munich residents to be more considerate.
“With this appeal we will try again without a ban :-)” he wrote.
The chips ban, however, he says was not triggered by the city but regulated by state law.
So it seems that for now Munich’s university students and party goers can continue to have their late night beers on the go, but without a side of chips.
