To think it is time to extend Sunday opening hours?

[Sundayopeningplease]

It really is time for the restrictive Sunday trading hours to be lifted. The archaic laws have not kept up with modern society.

Sunday may traditionally have been a family day but there have been a lot of changes since then. People are in increasingly different family set ups. The working hours have changed for a lot of people and being able to shop on a Sunday morning would improve things greatly. It would help trade for businesses too.

Sunday is now a major shopping day and the hours need to reflect this.

Why? A Sunday is often the only day we can shop.

Anyway, I'm signing out for the evening. I'm off to a concert.

After being at work in a supermarket for a full 8 hour shift.

And you’d be happy to go to work at 8 am (or earlier) on a Sunday, OP? Or is just “other people” that should work Sundays so that you maximize your leisure options?

Wish they were still shut!

No deliveries where you are? No 24/7 supermarkets Monday - Saturday?

I can see arguments on both sides. One thing that jumps out is that so many retail jobs are insecure and zero hours or minimum with workers not sure what hours they may get. There is no enforcement of right to opt out of Sunday work so in practice people have to work.

a lot of people have come saying that there are plenty who wouldn’t mind Sunday work as fits childcare/lifestyle. My impression is mostly it hasn’t been currently retail workers saying that.

My personal convenience I’d prefer shops open longer. I don’t have family or friends to visit so would actually like longer opening - I’m literally lonely sometimes. However if the workers on the shop floor say it’s important keep as is do that.

The shops are open on a Sunday anyway but long enough imo

No. It’s what happens when you live rurally. A Sunday is often our shopping day.

Well spotted.

Sorry, how old is the person you shop for? I don’t think you’ve mentioned it, OP?

To be honest you seem more intent on picking apart her story than actually looking at the bigger picture of changing retails hours.

I fully appreciate that not everyone who works in retail wants to work Sundays. Changes would require consultation with unions and staff.

There are retail staff here from when we had much more restricted hours on contracts that mean they don't have to work Sundays and Sundays carry a premium.

I probably live more rurally than you (I’m not in the UK, I’m in a country that’s a lot larger and people have longer distances to travel - doctors travel to us by small plane, for example). We shop once a month because of that. It’s how you plan and prepare when you live 75 miles from the nearest village. I didn’t wake up thus morning and suddenly realise I’m in the middle of nowhere.

To be fair OP you did take that approach yourself.

I live in Scotland, which, as other posters have said, does have longer opening hours on a Sunday. We moved up here from England, so have lived with both options, and to be honest, I don’t feel there is much of a difference in the quality of Sundays - they can be equally restful and peaceful.

I don’t know, though, how the shops manage their staff rosters - do they have staff on zero hours contracts, so they have enough staff to run 7 days or are the staff on proper contracts - I don’t know. It is clearly possible to run 7 days a week and still be a decent employer, but is every employer a good one? I doubt it.

But it should be possible to have shops open longer on a Sunday, and to do it in a way that keeps the staff happy too.

Good for you.

I actually miss shops being shut on a Sunday, closing for lunch and having a half day I the week. Can't explain why, just do

@WhoToldYou I'm not the OP but when I worked retail I often did 6am - 2pm on a Saturday because (I needed to be there to take the delivery in at 6am - shop opened 7.30). That was my favourite shift time wise. I would have happily done the same on Sundays if needed.
It seems daft that I see people outside waiting for shops to open at 11am on Sundays when the shop could have already potentially had 3 and a half hours of trading staffed by people who are perfectly happy to be working that shift.
(Btw....the impression I get is the OP gets very little leisure time because she is a carer)

Oh come back n @Flounder2022 OP is being so ridiculous saying that the only time she can shop is after 5 on a Sunday..., oh give over!

I used to work 7 to 2 on a Saturday and Sunday every third week. I loved that week. Especially during the summer months. Finished a 2 with still the whole day ahead of me (in those days I'd have probably still been in bed till 11am anyway!). Double pay for the Sunday and 2 days off during the week. What wasn't to love about that!!

I m in France right now, most shops are shut after 12 noon on a Sunday, a lot of lorries can't travel on a Sunday, the place is better for it.

France has far better productivity than the UK & even with /macrons new retirement age changes, will retire 3 years earlier than we do, inflation 6%.

Who has got it right and who has it wrong?

The French still, in many parts, have time for family, something the UK has lost.

Unlike many others I'm not getting hung up on the ins and outs of the OPs circumstances. I don't need anyone to 'prove' to me why they might want or need different opening hours. I see merit in it irregardless.

@Flounder2022 because a day off on my own is rubbish! Much rather a day off with my DC,

That's what I loved tome with my DC.

But weekend work was part of my contract and I certainly didn't want that extended.

Do you have children?

@Flounder2022 I'm responding to the post on AIBU, imagine that!

Scotland doesn’t feel more hectic with normal hours on a Sunday. Neither would England. It’s not like you could make everything shut on a Sunday so people will still be out en masse going to Alton Towers, the park, the beach, the pub etc. so why not the shops.

Major shops don't open til 10 or 11 but local Sainsbury's etc open at 7 or 8am on a Sunday. Those people who have to work Sundays presumably get another day off during the week. I know sone posters have said there would be people willing to work early/late on a Sunday, but then there's people like my teenage son who wouldn't get a choice and be forced to (like he had to work Xmas Eve even though his family lives 70 miles away and he had no trains so inconvenient all around).
Places that don't have smaller convenience stores - well tough I guess, they probably wouldn't want them nearby so it's the price they pay.