To think it's time to abolish Sunday trading rules in England

So it’s not inconvenient to you. Why are you bothered about what we’re doing here then?

I want to take it further and have the world running 24/7. I have a sleep phase disorder and basically live at night time if I don't have sleeping pills. This would open up flexible work for everyone

I hardly think having to shop on only six days in a week, rather than all seven, constitutes panic buying.

I’ve worked in retail and hospitality for longer than a year and support full opening on Sundays

Most of the supermarkets close at 4.30 on a sunday having only opened at 10am. It’s way too early to close and it’s often the time that I realise I urgently need to get something in for the start of the new week!

So close on a weekday / have shorter hours in the week instead.

There must be more demand for opening at 9am or 6pm on a Sunday than there is at 10am on a Thursday.

Anyone wanting Sunday full opening should have to do it in retail or hospitality for a year..bet they change their mind..😉

I'm in a big city in the south east of England and the supermarkets are t open at 6 am, it's either 7 or 7.30am. It is better on Sunday here IMO as many shops choose to open at 11am - 5 rather than 10-4.

It seems really archaic to have shops forced to open reduced hours on Sundays. People on these threads always cite retail workers needing a more relaxed day, but I don’t see the same attitude to those in other non essential roles and calling for the hospitality industry to close on Sundays. A walk around my local National Trust site and stopping for breakfast in the cafe is a lovely way to spend a Sunday, but if I wanted to buy some croissants from M&S on the way to have a picnic breakfast, suddenly it’s rampant consumerism and the poor retail workers should be with their families/ at church.

how much shopping do we need to do?!
This. Just get more organised.

Personally I think we should go back to shops being closed on a Sunday/bank holidays.

In Fact it’s bloody insulting to call them bank holidays when none of the bank call centres etc are actually shut.

This whole need to essentially need to do things constantly is ridiculous, and takes no account of the people who are expected to work long hours 7 days a week and for no extra pay just so that someone can buy milk whenever they feel the need instead of having to actually be organised.

Yes, this is the issue. There's no evidence we actually have a reserve of people ready and willing to cover earlier and later hours on Sundays. Sectors that open more fully such as hospitality and care have recruitment problems, so we know that people who particularly want to work those hours already have options to do so.

Public transport is also most limited on Sundays, which would be a problem for some workers, and with the shortage of bus drivers that's not an easy fix.

So why are you so bothered about what we do in England? I note you did not respond to my comment about Northern Isles and their more restrictive lives in the past. You seem to want to present the English as being backward without acknowledging that bin the iast some areas of Scotland were even more repressive and restrictive on a Sunday.

I think they’re probably too busy working all the hours that god sends to mobilise.

I say this as a former retail worker who would be back at work on Boxing Day for the sales. Complete nightmare.

I thought I'd booked a click and collect for today, went at 9am to realise I'd booked it for Monday 🤦🏻‍♀️ I needed fuel anyway so filled up then swung past the little Tesco express and picked up some bits for today, crisis averted!

The supermarkets are open 6am-10pm 5 days a week, a little less on Saturdays (are any still open 24hours?) plus click and collect, plus home deliveries, and you can buy groceries on Just Eat, Uber Eats etc, and the big shops are open for 6 hours on a Sunday - how much shopping do we need to do?!

I always think it's rather telling that we don't see campaigns from retail worker groups for this. Perhaps they think abolishing the restriction would be more inconvenient than keeping it.

I’d love it if shops were open longer on a Sunday - 10 to 4 is really restrictive and means you can’t go out for the day if you need to go to the supermarket (smaller shops around here never have a good range). If they either opened earlier or later then it would be much better.

Can’t go on a Saturday as they are always too rammed.

There was a vote in 2016 to remove Sunday trading laws in England and Wales. It didn’t pass, partly because the SNP told their MPs to vote against it.

I wouldn’t have affected them directly but apparently they were worried about the impact on wages 🤷‍♀️

I agree, also it is not just church goers who want Sundays off. When I worked in retail for almost 9 years, most if my colleagues with families wanted to be home with them on a Sunday. No doubt the OP thinks there are loads if people desperate to work on a Sunday but a supermarket cannot be staffed entirely with students working part time. The number of staff who left after a short period of time because Sunday working meant too little time with their children was rife.

We are still a country with a Christian basis to how our society works and our laws even if the number of people explicitly saying they are Christian is not quite the majority. .

It may be inconvenient to you but that’s not the be all and end all. Many people appreciate a common day to rest and socialise. Too many important things are thrown away in the name of ‘progress’.

You are wrong to say there NEVER was a restriction on shopping in Sunday in Scotland. My college friend grew up on a N Scottish island where nothing except church happened on a Sunday, even the swings in the park were tied up out of use every Sunday. Most of it sounds like Most of Scotland has longer shopping hours on Sunday but not every shop can afford to jeep open longer if very few customers come in.

Ha. Try living in Germany! Almost nothing is open all day on Sundays. They take Ruhetag very seriously here.

I think the shops in England are open long enough.
I'm old enough to remember when everything was shut on Sundays and Bank Holidays and some times on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons too. We managed (we didn't have the Internet either).