As of last week, Montenegro residents can make sure their shopping is done on weekdays. A new law aimed at strengthening workers' rights can now provide a fine of SEK 100,000 for shop owners who stay open on Sundays.
Montenegro thus becomes one of a handful of European countries that bans trade on red days.
"This is positive news for 37,000 people in the trade," the country's government wrote on Twitter.
However, the law makes exceptions in some cases. Pharmacies, bakeries, souvenir shops, newspaper kiosks, shops selling funeral items, gas stations and shops at bus and train stations, airports and ports are some of them that may continue to sell goods on Sundays.
"Will enjoy"Sanja Stojanovic, owner of a grocery store in the capital Podgorica, tells the Serbian BBC that the decision has changed her life.
- My employees have had vacations, usually Sundays, but I have not spoiled myself and probably would not. Now I am forced to rest on Sundays - and I will enjoy it, she tells the channel.
But not everyone is equally happy. One of the country's largest grocery stores has been criticized for extending Saturday's working hours at several of its department stores until midnight, and Montenegro's employers' association believes the law is discriminatory and violates corporate rights.
- Why must newspaper kiosks be open? We can adapt to not having newspapers on Sundays. So that colleagues in that profession can also rest, says Srda Kekovic, president of one of the allies of Al Jazeera Balkans.
Similar laws against Sunday shopping have been introduced in several other European countries in recent years. In Hungary, which introduced the law in 2015, the ban was so unpopular that it had to be withdrawn after only one year. Trade was not significantly affected, as the stores instead extended their working hours on weekdays.