It's August We're Closed

It is August no more, so we are no longer closed. Obviously as we were closed over August I couldn't actually say that, in August. But at least now you'll know for next time. The truth is that like many, many Genevoise my family and I took a couple of weeks holiday in August, whilst out the country I can hardly write about it.
Clearly August is the month to shut up shop and head off for the hols. In late July I left my office to get a nice sandwich from a place I know near me, it looks like a pretty normal store.  During the day it looks like a typical store, open door, shelves with products them, a counter and some tables where customers can sit.  So I reckoned it would be easy to get a tasty sandwich from them. However, when I got to the store the shutters were down, and a note attached to the shutters told any passer-by that the store was closed for two weeks whilst they went on summer holiday.  I was a little surprised the proprietor couldn't find a manager to cover two weeks, surely I thought he would have an assistant, of whose competence he was sufficiently confident that he could leave them to run the store for him for a short while. However, over the next couple of weeks I came to realise that he wasn't being odd, there were dozens of other small stores just like him, with notices on them saying we are closed for the summer, or running summer hours.
It's common knowledge in the UK that if you own a small business, whether you serve the public or other business, you don't get a holiday. But here, in Geneva, seemingly you do. What the benefit is I'm not sure and sadly I don't think I'm going to find out soon. If I rock up at the door to your sandwich shop, expecting to get my lunch, and you've whimsically decided you are closed, I think it will take a couple of months for me to feel like I'll come back to you.