The posters talking about how people in the good old days coped just fine with limited shopping hours - a huge reason for that is that in the past, jobs were much more secure, housing was much more easily available and much cheaper, and people didn't need to juggle multiple jobs to survive. It was also the norm for mothers to stay home, since the wage/housing cost disparity was so low that it was possible for many families to live on just the man's salary. That's all changed since then. Housing and cost of living costs have quadrupled but income hasn't risen accordingly. Even middle class couples with well-paid jobs need two salaries to survive now, while working class people often have to juggle multiple zero hours jobs just to pay the rent. The older generation got free university and free healthcare, now you can't try to better yourself without a ton of student debt, and lots of medical stuff just isn't available on the NHS anymore.
The idea of a job for life is almost mythological to my generation, we're in a huge cost of living crisis, there's no housing, and rent is insanely expensive. I'm sure middle class Mumsnetters who bought their houses in 1996 have no idea of this, but if you're juggling three zero hours contract jobs, how exactly are you supposed to trot off to the grocers' at 11am on a Tuesday?
Same with France. The reason they have shorter shopping hours is because French people get far more time off and workers' rights are taken very seriously in France. If you want English people to do their shopping at 11am on a Tuesday then you need to lobby for better workers' rights and affordable housing.
How can you not be physically able to get shopping in the other 6 days a week? Genuinely?
I work until 11pm Mon-Sat. I work a day job until 5pm then I work an evening shift. And no, I can't go shopping before work because I'm disabled and need to get a bus to the supermarket. I'm simply not physically healthy enough to be able to wake up early (after not getting home until midnight), take a bus to the supermarket, go round the supermarket, take the bus home, unpack, then take the bus back into town to catch the train to work, then work an extremely long day on top of that. Maybe once in a while but not every single week.
We should force people to work all kinds of hours to benefit the few entitled, unorganized people who can't function without ultimate convenience?
Yes people who work long hours in minimum wage zero hours jobs are famous for being extremely entitled.
If you can't manage to get what you need in the 6 days shops are open all day long, you probably don't need it that urgently!
Yep I'll just learn how to photosynthesise, food's not essential at all! Good to know that the millions of people who do their weekly food shop on a Sunday because they work full time are just being entitled, disorganised, and clearly don't actually need to feed their kids.