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?

What about events which happen mostly at weekends in the daytime?

Sports team fixtures, community events, religious services, weddings, children's clubs/activities which need a morning/afternoon rather than an evening, local gardening show, social/hobby/outdoors groups, etc?

If you take away the Sat/Sun weekend then it would weaken communities and social structures as there would be fewer opportunities for people to coincide.

But VolauVent, not everybody has that luxury any more.
Maybe I've spent far too many years in tourism, weekends for me were always harder work.
Why are Office Hours any more relevant than the hours everybody else has to work?
In my community the busiest time is weekends.

All those people saying 'but they get the time off in the week', yes but children are at school then. I've worked alternate sundays for 4 1/2 yrs. Difference is at the moment i now dont get home til 7pm, it used to be 4.30pm. Bedtime pretty much. I actually like spending time with my daughter! Due to extended opening, i am seeing less of her and no, i dont get a choice. Do it or leave. Childcare is a nightmare.
We also arent taking any extra money so no reasoning there.
Between the hours of 4-6pm last sunday we took £240. Staff costs would have been well over that, without lighting costs etc on top. On a daily/sunday basis its not up at all.
So the company is pounds down, the staff are fed up and resentful.
So no i hate extended hours. Its unnecessary and unreasonable.

LadyBeagleEyes I'm well aware that some people do work at weekends, having done so myself in previous jobs.

However I'd never say that just because some of us had to work weekends that everyone else should have to do so as well. It would just be sour grapes, wouldn't it?

I would much prefer evening opening.

Don't be daft, there were never sour grapes, it was the nature of the job and in my community, based on tourism, the norm.
It really makes no difference to me when I get my days off, why is Saturday and Sunday so sacrosanct?

We have 24 hour trading in Scotland with the supermarkets only ever close christmas, new year and easter find it convienient but have to remind myself when on holiday in England that they don't have that.

I know dotty, I've said that, it really doesn't make a difference in the scheme of things.
I'll happily work any day, though I no longer have childcare issues.
That does seem to be the stumbling block for a lot of people though, which seems fair enough.

Are you saying that you would be happy to go to work tomorrow and be told your working hours are changing?

If my company loses the current contract I work under there's every chance (if we even get to keep our jobs) we'll all have to work shifts. Our current Mon-Fri 9-5 will change to any one of three shifts on rota: starting at 7am and finishing at 11pm. This includes weekends. It will be put up with it if we want a job, or leave. There will be no concessions for childcare either. There are plenty of jobs where contracts change and in a recession it's suck it up if you can't afford to dump the job.

So much unemployment- surely longer opening times = more jobs open due to increased profits and greater manpower needed? And if pressure is on current staff to fill the deficit or work longer/harder there should be laws against that snd not sunday trading

People only have so much money to spend.

As well as shift workers there are 'on call' staff who can't plan their shopping.

Lots of people work weekends, and not all of them are well paid. Hospital cleaners for instance.

I live in Malaysia. Shops here are open 10-10, 7 days. Far more civilised.

This weekend I placed a grocery delivery order at 11-12pm on Saturday night. It arrived on Sunday afternoon. There are some things that are less efficient in this country, but shopping works well!

I am on the fence with this. I work in retail and have done for 11 years. Saturdays and Sundays are my busiest days.

Like many shops I have a weekday team and a different weekend team. However the weekday team know that in special circumstances they may be called in for weekends.

On Sundays I still do a full day so the extended hours have not had that much of an impact. We are open for an extra hour and it has been worth it as I no longer have to at 5pm say that we are shut make your way to the tills.

On the other hand I can see that people do want to spend time with their families, however that would have to be fairly shared between all staff regardless of whether they have children.

It all boils down to supply and demand and business needs. If there is a demand for shops to be open longer on a Sunday then if the law allows it I will supply.

I understand the point about childcare. It's difficult but maybe there's a business opportunity for someone to open a weekend nursery?

However, those who stated that people should have a day off from shopping on Sundays and that it should be a day of rest have still not answered my question of whether they use hospitality services on those days. And whether they think they are hypocritical?

The only possible reply has been from carernotasaint who said that it was the fact that retail workers didn't sign up to join an industry that works 24/7.

Well, it would be hypocritical to use any Sunday commercial service IF your reasons for wanting Sunday to be a day of rest were religious and you believed this was the day God rested, therefore it would be sacrilegious for anyone to work on this day.

This is not my objection to extended Sunday opening, however.

And the key word is extended, being that shops and supermarkets are already open on Sundays.
Of course I occasionally use shops/ cafes on a Sunday. But I like that they shut early, and, on my high st, most are shut all day.
It's quiet, more peaceful, and if that makes Sunday a good day for pulling back from the material obsessions of day to day life, and if it encourages a bit of spiritual reflection then so much the better.

I used to work in theatre (so Sat and Sun-theatres are dark on Monday so that was my day off) and have worked in bars etc, but going into those areas I knew full well what the hours would be.
Incidentally weekend matinees in theatre can be fun because there is a festive atmosphere, due to the fact that for the majority the weekend is a freer time.

Incidentally I had to change my whole career after becoming a parent, because there was no way I could do the hours anymore.
At least when shops shut earlier on a Sunday people know they are going to at least see their kids in the afternoon, and can plan stuff-in retail you are usually not given the same rota every week, and often only find out what days you are working the week before.

The 'if you don't want Sunday trading then you shouldn't use any services' line is a bit daft TBH. It's not a case of one in all in, the logical conclusion of that is that I shouldn't use A&E on a Sunday either.

Ds only ever ends up in A&E on a Sunday! (Twice, anyway!)

Ok so I work in retail have done in current job for over a decade.

No Sundays when I was hired, introduced when a new shopping centre was built.

My children are both at school and have after school clubs, I get in at 6pm, youngest to bed at 7ish eldest at 9ish after their 2hrs homework. Husband works nights and leaves at 7 (oj and sometimes I work until 8pm, due to he's so after cashing up etc I get home at 8:45ish)

So if I work Saturday and Sunday (those of you saying it will be one weekend or another are clearly deluded it doesn't work like that, especially if there are longer hours to cover) I will get no full day with my partner and our children!
Yes I will get 2 days off in the week but the kids will be at school and partner will be in bed.

Still only get a couple of hours , and you think it won't harm family life?
Some of us are out of the baby/toddler/preschool age and don't have our children all day.

It's unnecessary and despite all the bleatings to the contrary, only the staff and their families will suffer. My shop is seriously understaffed (by about 3 fullbtimers and 3 part timers) but we are on a freeze due to the economy. So it would mean worse service if we try to stretch the staff or people working all the bloody time.

More people in my extended family work weekends than not, in healthcare, social work, catering, telecoms support, and IT support. They all manage to make family life work for them, even when both partners are working shifts. I can't see that extending opening hours on a Sunday will make much difference - after all most large shops are already open for 6 hours.

Retail has historically been a rich source of weekend jobs for teenagers, and I'm sure if shops were more creative about employing weekend only staff, they could fill the gap to everyone's satisfaction.

People make family life work for them because we have no choice.

It's shite frankly - seven years of 'swing door parenting' nearly sent me to the funny farm, and that's with a dh who, despite working weekends and nights had a relatively decent, predicatable shift pattern. I packed in when I was asked to work longer at the weekends. I was lucky enough to be able to do that financially.

There is a choice here too - extend the hours or not and just because other services are open over the weekends it doesn't have to mean that retail has to follow suit. No-one died because they couldn't get to Top Shop on a Sunday morning not even dd.

I live in Scotland and our 24 hour supermarkets don't shut, they are 24 hours. People always want their needs met, my DH works in the travel sector, why would you want to fly on holiday on Xmas day, but people do, so DH has to work.

Shops are not going to employ more staff to fill extended hours. They will, as others have said, simply extend the staff they have, making for a more stressed workforce, and worse customer service.

Thinking about the whole "leisure activities on a Sunday" thing, and actually the places I tend to use on a Sunday are, generally, small or family run enterprises, and not large chains.
For example, the cafe I like is run by a family, and their kids are there, helping out, or just hanging out, similarly the pub is a family run concern, and the grandkids are often there, being fussed over by regular Sunday lunch goers.
This is not the same thing as having to go and man the espresso machine at yet another branch of Costa, where you would not have your kids with you.
Family business can choose when to close. My local chippy closes for two weeks in August to go on their holidays. If they were a franchise owned by a large company, they couldn't do this.

I just wouldn't like to see the people who are working for big chains, who already have NO choice in hours/rotas/ anything be squeezed even more, and have even less say in their working pattern. If you legislate for more commercial freedom, these chain store employees will be the ones suffering.

If you don't like the hours, you have to jack in the job, get another one, go on unemployment or suck it up. That's just how it is.

The world doesn't exist to make concessions for peoples' family life or commitments, that's our own responsibility.

It's about money and business and how they change over time. If it means more profit for business, then things will change accordingly and you change with it or get out.

All they needed to do when the Sunday Trading laws first came in was to legislate that you had to have different staff for Sundays, and not those who worked in the week. They could have made that law, thus providing jobs for students/ mums looking for PT hours etc, and protecting the staff already working. Why didn't they?

When schools and nurseries are open on Sundays then I'll agree with you that we should have all day opening of the shops. DH is home on 2 odd days of the week (never anything as straightforward as every Monday and Tuesday either), so DD can go to school Saturday and Sunday and be at home when he is. That OK with you teachers?