Okay, I'm a Canadian living in Spain and can tell you, from 1200 - 1900 in the summer the sun hurts, and yeah, a lot of stuff is done locally = walking or biking (usually walking).

It is much easier in local towns and villages to walk around and get what you need rather than take a car, often a more difficult thing to do given parking scarcity, and really not necessary given that there are many options for going local. I have two supermarkets within a KM of my home, 16 (!) cafeteria/bars/restaurants, and most other services are covered (banks, dry cleaner, gas station etc). In larger cities (Barcelona, Madrid and smaller cities) the neighborhoods tend to have most things. You really only do the long drive to hit larger supermarkets or to go to a mall or something.

Shops manage to be open in the Middle East, Africa and Asia where it gets much warmer than Spain and in many places with much less favorable conditions.

I've been to the south of Spain it's hot but 35c isn't unbearable in the middle of the day.

Yes, in India, shops don't close in the middle of the day. But business is very slow during those few hours.

I remember back in the early 90s when I visited, Chennai certainly did have siesta periods. It wasn't everyone though, but enough that you couldn't be sure.

35C is bad for physical labour, but it's certainly tolerable for things like retail.

Yet another Canadian here yeah we grind to a halt at anything near 30C.

I'm in the humid Maritimes it's 28C but with the humidity it feels like 40C.

> Arizona is in the car-centric USA. You walk straight from your car with AC into a shop with AC via the shortest path possible.

Melbourne has summers that are nearly as hot as Phoenix. AC isn't so prevalent here, yet the shops don't change their hours in summer.

Often I think of Canada having the same problems as Arizona, but in reverse (cold instead of hot). Except it sure is convenient that the coldest part of the day is when everyone is asleep.

That's not terribly relevant these days, though.

For the same reasons you mention it makes 2pm in the afternoon the worst time to be on break and out of your air conditioned office or workplace.

Is 11-2 really the hottest part of your day? That may be when the sun is highest in the sky, but usually the hottest temperatures of the day are closer to late afternoon.

It doesn't matter so much what time the air is actually the hottest, but what time the sun will burn you.

I'd take 37 C air in the shade over 35 C in the midday sun any time.