To think Sunday trading hours is silly

[iguano88]

Everyone waiting at the self service and normal checkouts from 10:45, with full baskets and trolleys (shop was open for browsing but Sunday hours 11-5). Staff then opened all the tills at exactly 11 but not a minute before.

Why do we still only open large shops for 6 hours on a Sunday? 11 seems really late to open. There’s a blend of religions in society and more people need hours at work, Sunday evenings would suit students or parents who need to work opposing hours to their other half for childcare reasons. The more I think about it the sillier it is. I also think it adds to the ‘Sunday scaries’ people experience.

AIBU to think it should just be abolished and business as usual?

Maybe they ought to change some of their practices. There was a thread on here a while ago which discussed Christmas temp jobs and the fact that the people working them wouldnt recieve their pay until the end of January. Not really hard to recognise that people doing these jobs want the money in time for Christmas not fucking Burns Night!

Its people without kids who would get leaned on to do it.

This is such a ridiculous post that I wonder if it’s a wind-up. The shops not being allowed to open after 5 on a Sunday does not “protect” anyone. Working time directives exist for this reason. Just because a business can open for more than six hours a day, it doesn’t mean they can force people to work longer hours - and as many have pointed out, only six hours of opening does not mean only six hours of work for the staff, who will probably be moved onto restocking duty once the store closes.

As for equating allowing the shops to stay open for longer on a Sunday with child labour, I can’t even begin to understand your deranged “logic”.

We were in Blackpool and couldn't work out why massive line wasn't moving and a man told us about the 11am start. Utterly daft thankfully I live in Scotland which doesn't do this

I used to work in a supermarket and a Sunday night was the only time the whole department could get together for a social!

But I also don't see what the problem
Is. Can't you wait for things until 10:30? The shops are open all the time six other days of the week. It's not like they're totally shut.
As for Easter Sunday. Well it should be shut. You'll be saying they should be open on Christmas Day next!

Northern Ireland Sunday hours are 1-6
Really annoying sometimes!

I live in a town where everything (aside from supermarkets) shuts on a Wednesday at midday too! We are living in the 80s here

Yep. It drives me nuts.

Even if the opening hours don't make sense or are silly, I'd be interested how many people struggle to find any other time at all to shop when the supermarkets are open currently.

There can't be too many people who's only available time to shop is before 10am or after 5pm on Sundays

On all other threads the often repeated phrase is "its not a race to the bottom" ...and yet the argument for retail workers is that the ones in big supermarkets should work more unsociable hours "because the nhs and people who work in corner shops already do!!??"

Because some people work unsociable hours, then everyone should!

....except the people wanting the shop to be open at eg 9am or 8pm on a Sunday won't be working then....because they're shopping!!

The thing about the really crap arguments made to try to defend a law that says that some shops - decided by size - must have restricted opening hours on a Sunday is that it’s abundantly obvious that none of the claimed destruction of family life or other apparently dreadful consequences actually happen in Scotland where you can do your big shop on a Sunday evening and have been able to for decades.

Scotland is part of the UK and the world hasn’t ended because people can shop on Sundays. The world hasn’t ended because Sainsbury’s locals in England are open after 4/5pm either.

The counter complaints about the restrictions on alcohol sales in Scotland are also a bit daft. It’s not really equivalent. It does make sense that a government would want to restrict the purchase of alcohol for various reasons. Whether the current regulations are effective is a different question of course. But it’s not really comparable to doing the weekly shop at 6pm on a Sunday.

At one point in time I really did think that my only time possible in the week to shop was 8pm on a Sunday. And I'm in Scotland, so that is when I did shop.

I was working, 9am to often 7pm+ Mon-Fri, and had a strict exercise schedule in the evenings. I often worked or socialised during the day on Saturday, then out on a Saturday night. Then on a Sunday, I had a hobby that took me out of the house 7am - 6pm.

If I had lived in England, I guess I would have had to go shopping on a Saturday afternoon. And to be fair, I look back, now I have children, and realise that I had no idea just how much free time I really had. 😀

But at the time, it did feel impossible.

It doesn't bother me either way. I really don't understand why it bothers anyone at all.

It really annoys me. We like to do stuff on a Sunday during the day and would like to pop to the shop before dinner to pick things up and get stuff for the following week - in this day and age I think it is unnecessary and frustrating.

Can we also have banks open on Sundays? (Or actually banks that are open at all) Travel agents. Estate agents. Doctors surgeries are more essential than supermarkets. Normal bus and train services running. Offices should also be open. Solicitors. Financial advisors. Hairdressers. Definitely no early closing for any hospitality businesses. And schools and childcare … definitely necessary for those parents forced to work.
Setiously, the unions fought long and hard for people to actually get a weekend, two days off together, when the majority of families could spend quality time together, and the workers could actually “breathe”. We seem to be hell bent on going backwards and regressing our society, under the illusion of “progress”.

When I was young everything was closed on Sunday, and mostly Saturday as well, and people still found things to do. Do try and keep up.

Nice of you to be so concerned about businesses being able to set their own opening hours. Nothing at all to do with what YOU want of course.

Are you volunteering to work on the day? Or are you just expecting others to miss out on the holiday and work for your convenience?

Would you say that about Christmas?? Both are religious festival as much as they have been hijacked by commercialising them and should be treated as such

It's interesting that we've never seen any concerted campaign from workers who want to be able to be do longer hours in big shops on Sundays. There doesn't appear to be much of a currently suppressed group of potential employees waiting to step into the breach as soon as the law changes.

I have only read some posts, but can someone who lives in England help me 🤣 Im Scottish and spending the weekend down south and will be in Manchester on Sunday. Will all the shops be closed? Its not a thing in Scotland and shops are only closed xmas/new year, so not something i considered when picking a weekend to go.

Shops can open for six hours on a Sunday, most will do either 10am-4pm or 11am-5pm. This doesn't apply to very small shops like mini supermarkets etc so you'll still be able to get snacks/milk etc. Some independent shops may be closed altogether.

It's Easter this Sunday so the normal rules won't apply. Only small shops can open at all.

https://www.gov.uk/trading-hours-for-retailers-the-law

Normally yeah, the big ones would be open for 6 hours.

I work in retail and I put myself forward to work Sundays because it's a nice short day.
It's one day a week, I work different days every week and I still manage to get what I need. So no, I don't think it's a good idea to open shops longer on Sundays, it's nice to have that 1 day where we can get home and eat with our families, well for me anyway. I'm sure most retail workers would agree with me!

I've worked in a supermarket, a discount retailer and currently in a charity shop in Scotland and that just doesn't happen. Nobody uses annual leave just to get Sundays off, I only work 1 in 3 Sundays (occasionally 2 in 3) and everyone takes a turn.

I work in a supermarket (in England). I work Sundays. I don't want to work them anymore. I would drop the hours, or work an extra week day, whichever my employer preferred, but they can't get the Sundays covered as it is. Lots of people who do work them take only a Sunday off to spend time with family. And we don't have the luxury of working on a rota (management do, but us lowly csas have to do them every week). There are some places where things are done better than others, but if the Sunday trading laws were abolished I'm 99% sure that the majority of conditions would get worse not better.