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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think shops should be open longer Sundays

432 replies

Habba · 03/12/2018 07:07

We aren't a religious country, churches are empty and it would be great to do the weekly shop at 6-7pm on a Sunday when the children are in bed.

Dragging them around busy shops during the day would give me more family time.

Scotland manages just fine, people up there find it bizzare the government forces shops here to close.

OP posts:
BorisBogtrotter · 04/12/2018 10:34

Nah there's enough time in the week to buy what you want, click and collect, delivery.

Conspicuous consumption is not a necessity.

scaryteacher · 04/12/2018 10:34

I live in Belgium. Very few shops open here on Sundays...the bakers, the 'express' supermarkets perhaps, and if something is open on a Sunday, then they are shut normally on a Monday and perhaps the Tuesday as well.

It works well, and makes sure that retail workers get some time off. The other way it works is that there are automaats, essentially vending machines, for bread, veg etc if you are desperate.

milafawny · 04/12/2018 10:36

I agree, they should be open, i work nights, any night out of 7, sometimes im rota'd Friday and Saturday night so have to get up early to be able to buy lunch box stuff on a Sunday for my kids as the shut so early.

BakedBeans47 · 04/12/2018 10:37

and a few others who would like Sunday closing ALSO said it should only be essential services operating on Sunday's.

Good for you. You go back to crappy boring Sundays where you sit around the house with fuck all to do, especially at this time of year where spending the day outdoors is less of an option and leave the rest of us to spend our time and money on Sundays as we see fit.

Cabochard · 04/12/2018 10:39

I work on Sunday ( large chain) l get time and a quarter. My usual wage is £8.85.
Rubbish /but better than min wage.
Anyway- lots of people have decided that 10-4 isn’t long enough to get their shopping, and that they must come in a few minutes to 4 with whacking great trolley!
They also seem surprised to be reminded that we are about to close.
Checkouts only get paid till 16:15 -and yet l frequently see people loading on massive amounts at 16:10. 😡
Previous posters have mentioned the abuse that USDAW are trying to make people aware of. It’s no joke. Retail workers ( especially females or young males) suffer the worst.
All l ask, whatever hours you may find us working now , or in the future is to be civil.

BorisBogtrotter · 04/12/2018 10:40

If you think shopping is entertainment then you are dull.

FunkyKingston · 04/12/2018 10:43

Closing at 4pm gives retail workers a tiny bit of family time

Pah. Save it.

You do realise that three hours less work equals three hours less pay? When I worked in retail I resented the Sunday hours as my bus fares still cost the same as if I were working a full shift. Most of the day is taken up already so I would rather have rather have had the money in my pocket than some so called ', precious family time'.

Biancadelriosback · 04/12/2018 10:44

@thedarkpassenger
Really? I worked for 4 different chains in my career and have regularly been expected to cover night shifts after my own (DM). I've been called in at 3am due to the water not turning on even though it had nothing to do with my department. Never time for breaks let alone food cooked for us. Which dept are you in? I think that does make a difference sometimes

RunningFeisty · 04/12/2018 10:47

Here is a novel idea, if you don't want to work on a Sunday, don't pick a job where this would be a possibility!

ThanksItHasPockets · 04/12/2018 10:51

We aren't a religious country

There's been lots of studies that show the UK is secular society. Half don't belong to any religion

You make these points as if they’re synonymous. They aren’t. There is a state religion; the head of state is the head of the state religion; the most senior priests sit in the House of Lords. What you’re arguing for is the disestablishment of the Church of England but that goes rather further than enabling you to do your weekly shop at 6pm on a Sunday.

I have a theory on the subject of Sunday shopping - in our local supermarkets the longer-serving staff are on contracts with older ts & cs, including time and a half or double pay on Sunday. Staff who’ve joined more recently seem to be employed on different terms. I wonder if longer Sunday opening would be prohibitively expensive for the supermarkets while a proportion of their staff are on more generous terms, and if they will only begin to lobby for longer opening hours once enough of those employees have retired or moved on.

SaltPans · 04/12/2018 10:58

I am a nurse and take my turn over all shifts, including - shock horror— Sunday’s. For some people Sunday is the only day that they can manage to go shopping.

Yes, but would you be happy to work on a zero hours contract, at a few pounds above the NMW, but below the living wage with no NHS pension, and working until state pension age - where you might be working say 32 hours a week, and then management says the overtime budget has been exceeded for the year, so you and half your colleagues are only going to get 8 hours work a week until the end of the year? You can't afford to pay your rent; and have to walk miles to work, because you certainly can't afford the bus fare?

DD applied for three shifts noon to 6 pm a week at a major supermarket. Nobody told her at the interview, she would be on a zero hours contract. She ended up working 55 hours over 6 days a week, and the only reason she did not work 7 days a week, was that she flatly refused, having told them at the interview, she needed to attend tutoring for a GCSE one day a week. She did not get a weekend, say Tuesdays and Wednesdays to make up for having to work on Saturdays or Sundays - and no, they did not get a real choice or extra time for working on Sundays or bank holidays.

In her dept., the bakery the staff had to start work at 3 am, and while she was supposed to finish at 6 pm, she frequently had to work until 10 pm, prepping the stuff for the staff to bake at 3 am. It was physically demanding work - she had to push cages or carry trays of the dough from the chiller or freezer (and they got no extra clothing for going into the freezers at -18), and at first the stuff was too heavy for her. She had to ask male staff to push the cages for her into the bakery, until she got stronger. Then, she was working by the hot ovens all day, and treated like dirt by the customers, while putting the bakery stuff out on the shelves!

Two disciplinarys and they got fired. Her manager told her, when the overtime budget was exceeded, that she was to leave at 6 pm, at the end of her shift - she was not to work until the tasks were finished. So, one day, she did. Two days later, she got a disciplinary for leaving her shift, with work unfinished!

DS worked for another major supermarket, where the checkout operators could get a disciplinary for not smiling and making enough small talk with the customers.

DD's partner is a junior doctor, working day or night shifts, and he manages to go food shopping after work, without needing to go at 6 pm on a Sunday.

TheDarkPassenger · 04/12/2018 10:59

@Biancadelriosback

I was a GM until recently, I guess it depends how much money the hotel itself has too! I’ve been called out at times of the morning and stayed up all night when we got broken into etc. But my pay packet reflected this.. the original comment I replied to mentioned doing this on min wage, I would never have expected any of my staff to do any of that on min wage! That’s absolutely shocking! I wouldn’t even have expected the supervisors to do it on their wage either, possibly an AM, but only if I were not available (out of the country or something)

Hoopaloop · 04/12/2018 11:03

If you can't manage to do your shopping at any time but late Sunday evening, you probably should probably reassess your life.

Cabochard · 04/12/2018 11:10

Thanks the supermarket l work for quashed all double and time and a half for all workers,no matter how long they’ve had their contract.
I imagine time and a quarter will go too!

Cabochard · 04/12/2018 11:13

We have Sunday regulars that come in at 2 - spend two hours mooching around/ pick up all the bargains... buy it - only to return it on Monday!
Some people come in 2/3 times a day to buy scratch cards... snacks... sit down... wander around.
Supermarket ‘ shopping’ is definitely a way of life for some customers! Wink

EmeraldShamrock · 04/12/2018 11:20

Here is a novel idea, if you don't want to work on a Sunday, don't pick a job where this would be a possibility!
Wow how insightful. I am not sure why lower skilled workers never thought of that. Very very ignorant post.

ThanksItHasPockets · 04/12/2018 11:21

Thanks, Cabochard - interesting.

ladylunchalot · 04/12/2018 11:24

Yanbu op, it works perfectly well here in Scotland. When I was a student I loved working on a Sunday as it was double time. Shifts were on a rota basis and from what I remember everyone loved a Sunday shift but you did have the option to switch shifts if it didn't suit.

I'm always amazed when in England on a Sunday at the Sunday trading laws, feels like it's back in the dark ages. I now work in NHS and there's no such thing as a Sunday off, same as dh who works for the railway, 24 hours a day all year. Plus not everyone works Mon to Fri 9 to 5, that's a pretty outdated concept now.

Flamingosnbears · 04/12/2018 12:04

Close them! People can manage there's Internet shopping, 24hrs openings, there's no need for any more.

Kazzyhoward · 04/12/2018 12:15

Close them! People can manage there's Internet shopping, 24hrs openings, there's no need for any more.

For most people internet shopping isn't same day delivery. Also, you really want to encourage more people to shop online given the dire situation of the high street closures and even supermarkets closing down???

Weneedhelpnow · 04/12/2018 12:27

YABVVU

I work in retail the only day Dh and I are both of with the kids is Sunday.

A lot of my colleagues work Sunday for the extra money. One of my colleagues has 2 kids, works Sundays when they go to her parents. She hasn't had Sunday dinner with her kids in months. Her Dh works weekends too. They have no family life.

LAlady · 04/12/2018 12:32

Shops are open long enough. Try working in retail before making statements like this !

There is a lot of expectation that you do hours allocated as per my son's part time job. So he's working late Thursday evening, working Boxing Day etc etc. Not a huge amount of choice if he wants to keep his job.

RebootYourEngine · 04/12/2018 12:36

I am in scotland. I have worked in retail, the NHS and supermarkets. I would say that the supermarket job is probably the job i enjoy the most. I work every sunday but it does not bother me because i prefer to have a saturday off. I have already done a shift today so get plenty of family time. Retail workers do not work every hour that the place is open. In my experience very few retail workers actually work full time.

mastertomsmum · 04/12/2018 12:39

If you lived in Germany you would find the shops shut on Saturday afternoons. Sunday closing here is a local tradition as much as it is a religious holiday these days.

Our local Sainsbury and Tesco are open very long hours all week bar Sunday and there is online shopping too, so plenty of opportunity.

Our local church is packed most Sundays and folk often pop into the Coop next door on the way home. We have 2 smaller shops (Tesco and some other generic small shop) who are small enough to be open all hours and not subject to the trading hrs restrictions.

Polarbearflavour · 04/12/2018 12:41

SaltPans - shocking that checkout staff can get disciplined for not making small talk and smiling! Low pay jobs often demand emotional labour. I am always polite to retail staff, I will happily chat back to them but I’m also happy if they are polite and help me efficiently. I don’t need my self esteem boosted by a worker asking how I am, smiling at me in a fake manner and pretending to show an interest in me.