to hope they keep the extended shopping hours on a sunday

[hawaiiWave]

I am a bit of a loser shopaholic and I love the current extended shopping hours on s Sunday, my local town centre shops are now open 10-6. I love drive,but it seems to help traffic congestion too, as shoppers are less concentrated.

Aibu to wonder why there is a restriction in the first place?

'Im with the posters who said that if they extend Sunday opening hours they should open schools and nurseries on Sundays too. '

Plenty of people work in retail who do not have childcare commitments. So we can have university lectures on Sundays, banks open, etc?

Why are parents of young children in need of any more special treatment than other groups in society who have to juggle commitments in their lives, too?

Because the last time i checked it was illegal to leave young children on their own.

And? How is this the problem of the rest of the world? Again, plenty of people work shifts to avoid childcare costs.

If you can't do it or don't want to do it then you find some other form of employment.

That's true of any job.

Anyone watching Newsnight?

Just a thought of shops open longer hours it seems that most on this thread would shout hurrah and spend longer browsing shopping etc with smiles on their faces. However what if the next announcement from the government is that as everyone now takes Sunday shopping for granted and 'it's truly now just another day' all businesses, shops, offices, schools, etc are to open for business on Sundays how would we all feel having to work Sunday or DH's having to work Sundays? I know that lots do work Sundays but on the whole they are doctors, nurses, careers etc that accept it as art of their career choice, but what if it was forced on us all? Gone would be the concept of a weekend together as a family however you spend it. I wonder if the shopworkers would be rushing to our cause?

I quite like being able to supermarket shop at 7/8 am on a Sunday, but they won't keep it as I'm usually the only person in.Tesco at that hour!!

Best thing about 24 hour opening in Scotland is doing the weekly shop at 7 in the morning cos DD got up at 5am! Everything freshly stocked, hardly anyone else in the store apart from other mums with early risers and no queues at the checkout

'However what if the next announcement from the government is that as everyone now takes Sunday shopping for granted and 'it's truly now just another day' all businesses, shops, offices, schools, etc are to open for business on Sundays how would we all feel having to work Sunday or DH's having to work Sundays? '

Wouldn't bother me a bit. And the government isn't compelling anyone to do anything, it's allowing business the option of extended hours on a particular day of a week, because that's what it is, a day of the week.

The idea of 'family weekends together' is right up there with the property 'ladder' and retiring at 60 to go play golf for 30+ years, outdated.

Times change.

Already has in Scotland. Believe it or not, shopworkers have survived.

It's very naive to think that those who want shops open extended hours don't understand what it's like not to have DH around on a Sunday.

Many office workers don't work 9-5 any more and many work well into the weekend already. It is not uncommon for many office do all nighters for various reasons. Loads of office workers travel abroad over weekends regularly.

Those days of 9-5 have have already disappeared I'm afraid and shops need to move with the times or risk losing market share to on line retailers.

In a truly 24/7 society nobody would have to work every Sunday anyhow because firstly there are always many part time staff who want the weekend shifts. Then the rest would be taken on a rotation basis. They could also be swapped.

ds2 recently faced a disciplinary for swapping a shift. Retail, decent sized company. Just sayin'.

Saggar

Well maybe she didn't get it authorised? Of course there are procedures for swapping shifts so the managers know who's meant to come in...just saying

He did get it authorised, verbally by the dep manager. Who then backtracked when called on it by the store manager and dropped him in the shit. Apparently being stuck 150 miles away due to a points failure and no trains wasn't 'exceptional circumstances'.

It's anecdotal obviously but I'm using it as an example as to how some large retail stores treat their employees and to try to dispell this myth that the employees will somehow be accommodated if the hours extension comes in to force. IME it's bollocks. Contracts will be changed by force and opting out of Sundays often means you get the shitty Fri/Sat evening shift combo week in week out. And you're stuck with it and most often it's women who are stuck with it, because they form the majority of the workforce. But you know, it's OK 'cos people want to shop.

Actually IME the large retail units have more scope to swap and be flexible with shifts than the small independents due the sheer volume of shifts available.

The treatment of their staff is another quite separate issue from opening extra hours.

And the late night catering industry in most provincial cities is dominated by young men, who also work the late night Friday and Saturday shifts. So I don't see the relevance in the gender issue you raised.

'Contracts will be changed by force and opting out of Sundays often means you get the shitty Fri/Sat evening shift combo week in week out. And you're stuck with it and most often it's women who are stuck with it, because they form the majority of the workforce. But you know, it's OK 'cos people want to shop.'

Plenty of people want 'shitty' Fri./Sat. evening shift combo and Sundays week in/week out, because they have other commitments during the week or change out childcare with a partner.

More opportunities to work for them with extended hours.

The treatment of their staff is another quite separate issue from opening extra hours.

I disagree. You can't separate out the two. Extended hours will mean changes to contracts and yes whilst that will suit some people there are plenty whom it won't suit.

And we're not talking about changes to the late night catering industry. We're talking about retail.

There are many Scots on this thread that have said it's like this in Scotland and it hasn't made a blind bit of difference.
In my Shopping Centre there's even a hairdresser open.
Why should retail be any different from any other leisure industries?

Yes but its been like it for as long as I've lived here mid 80's don't know when it started

cantspel, further down your link was this

If you decide to opt out, your employer may not have to offer you extra work on other days instead. It will depend on the terms of your contract. You could lose the wages you used to earn by working on Sundays.

There may be stores in some areas that benefit from 24/7 opening but where DH works they have cut down their extended hours in the week because there are so few customers that it just isn't commercially viable.

large stores would still have to fill all shifts that already exists, so would recruit to fill the new slots.
There is little slack in supermarket scheduling - if you move someone out of one shift, you have to replace them, so it would make far more sense just to get people who want the sunday hours.

this would only really effect till staff anyway as replenishment are already there after 4pm sunday!

(management excluded, though generally management work flexible shifts and may well already be in store late on sundays anyway)

as expat rightly points out, many people want weekend shifts.

Look this is ridiculous.

I have spent around 40 years managing retail and catering establishments.

I have always received far more applications from potential staff wanting to work weekends only. This is because it's in the main fairly unskilled work with flexible hours and suits students, people working 2 jobs to top up their income etc.

I have always employed a main team of full time staff that get schedules balanced between staff and business needs. I would then supplement the weekend shifts from the enormous amount of applications requesting weekends only. It's not difficult.

As a manager of low paid staff I have found that it's in the interest of the managers to ensure staff are content with their shifts for many reasons which includes the fact that if staff on low wages are not happy with their shifts they generally don't turn up or leave.

This is my experience and flies in the face of everything people are saying about people being MADE to work Sunday extended hours against their wishes.

I could go on but having scheduled for 7 day long hour businesses for so many years you cannot get people do work shifts they don't want to and it is not in the interest of the business to do so.

sorry that should read 20 years not 40!!

nitty I too have spent 20 years as a retail manager and my experience is very different to yours. Maybe it's regional? Do you live in a university / college town?

The vast majority of people who have worked for me are working parents who are really, genuinely worried about how this will effect their already difficult family lives.

The company I work for currently only employs part time workers on zero hours contracts. if people don't want to change their shifts they are not going to be given any more hours - simple as that. I've been working in head office for about a year now and I know this to be the plan as part of my job is to look at cost benefit analysis.

I don't think it's ridiculous that people are concerned.

my experience in the big 4 supermarkets was as per nittys post.

lots of people - students (by which we mean 16-18 year olds) second jobbers, working parents, retirees even - want weekend work.

full timers generally take shifts mon-saturday that suit both their needs and the business. if their shifts don't suit, they usually leave.

Maybe regional - I've been a manager in 2 of the big 4 and found the unsociable hours very difficult to staff.

Englishgirl
Interesting.

Well I have worked all around the country but in cities so my experience is both university based and not.

I understand that in areas where there are less students and people wanting to work weekends only this will be more problematic. It's not impossible to overcome I wouldn't have thought. Most towns have people for whatever reason wanting to work for extra money outside of normal hours and many of those currently working Sunday's may be happy to work a few extra hours on their current shift.