to think supermarkets should open longer on Sundays?

[ThisPlumCrab]

By late Sunday morning my local supermarket is like a rugby scrum with trolleys. The car park is jammed, people are queueing before they even get inside, and once you are in the aisles it feels like an obstacle course just to reach the milk. It is easily the busiest day of the week here, yet we still have the six hour Sunday trading limit.

Because of Sunday trading laws, the big shops in England and Wales can only open for six hours. In practice that means everyone piles in at the same time. Late morning is rammed, early afternoon is even worse, and by the afternoon the place looks like a plague of locusts has been through, with only artichokes and beetroot left.

In Scotland there are no Sunday trading laws for large shops, so they can open as long as they like, and life seems to carry on perfectly fine.

If supermarkets here could open longer, like on a normal day, people could spread out their shopping and the whole thing would be calmer. Families who spend Saturday at kids sports or activities, and workers who do shifts at the weekend, would have more choice than the current six hour window. Smaller express or local stores are open all day anyway, but they are pricier and do not stock everything, so you end up doing several little shops.

I know the main argument for the current rules is that Sundays should be for people to spend time with their families. But not everyone lives in a family setup, and many people, especially students, part timers, and those looking for extra income, actually prefer to work on Sundays. For some, it is the best day to pick up extra hours without clashing with other commitments.

I just do not see how the current system helps when Sundays are already the busiest.

You mean, like earning a living?

Most batshit response I've seen in a while

Correct. Retail workers etc deserve time off, too. Consumerism can resume M-Sat.

YABU you get six other days to go to the supermarket which are longer and you can go at quieter times or do click and collect/online shopping.

I think it's the Church of England peers you have to lobby about this. I seem to remember this was debated in the 90s or early 2000s and they flexed their muscles.

I think some people arguing for shops to open even longer hours are forgetting about all the jobs that have to be done at some point behind the scenes in the supermarkets, when they're closed to customers.

How many people would expect shops open every daylight hour (and more), seven days a week, and then still complain that the staff haven't been properly trained, shelves haven't been stacked and they can't get what they need?!

I disagree, because there's no evidence that this is something retail workers actually want to do, or that there's a suitable cohort of people waiting in the wings to cover the longer hours on Sundays. Especially given that's the worst day for public transport and formal childcare.

There's an unfortunate tendency for people to think that because they'd like to use a service, that demand automatically creates a supply of workers who want to provide it.

No unfair idea because you can't rely on every supermarket to be able to pick up staff who want to work Sundays. In a lot of cases you might be right, but opening longer on Sundays, means shops HAVE to be staffed longer on Sundays, which means more time when some poor souls HAVE to take on the duty of working.

I work Sundays by choice, works well for childcare too. No one seems to be worried for me

Surely this would create more jobs and that is a good thing? Sundays are actually good days to work for some people as it can be a day less paid childcare needed if the other parent is at home. Plenty of people work Sundays in lots of different roles, so not sure why supermarkets are any different to all the other places people work.

I’m in Scotland so it’s normal here anyway. 24-hour supermarkets are open truly 24 hours every day.

Loads of call centres observe weekday hours. It's usually only the emergency bank numbers on late evenings and Sundays

Supermarkets are open until 10pm.

You can get online deliveries.

Nobody NEEDS to go shopping on a Sunday.

If your a couple juggling childcare been able to work aSunday can be a massive help it was for us

I personally don't really care about the hours that shops are open on a Sunday because I'm in the position where I can shop at other times.

But I really have no idea why, in this day and age, we still have Sunday trading laws. It wouldn't even be so bad if it applied to all trading establishments, but it only actually seems to apply to large shops and garden centres, for no good reason. So pubs, restaurants, cafes, petrol stations, small shops, airport shops, farm shops etc can all open with unrestricted hours. But as soon as a shop gets too large, then it can't open for as long as it likes. It makes no sense. Do the staff of a cafe, garden centre or small shop not work as hard those in a Tesco superstore so don't deserve a Sunday lie in? Do all religious people only work for Sainsburys and not for a corner shop? The law is an utter nonsense.

I’m on the keep them closed side of the fence.
Id go further and shut them all on the public holidays again too, you should not be forced to work every day except Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. Most places haven’t paid extra money for Sundays/Bank holidays for years as they now justify it as a ‘normal working day’
Ive had friends/family work in retail and they are treated terribly with the rota’s, pressure to work and paid terribly on top.

Some may want overtime (as most supermarkets don’t even give full time roles now) but many, many more are pushed to do hours/days they don’t want and struggle to do (difficulties with childcare for example) for fear that they won’t be asked again or be zeroed down on their ‘flexible hours’ contract.

So no, just to give the poor people in retail a break that can’t be taken from them.

Lets not give supermarkets the ability to pressure you to work at any point 24/7/365 - They absolutely will take it.

Just don't go on sundays if its too busy for you. Its like when people complain about rush hour traffic when you are the traffic.

Are you always this rude? Good to see that you know my life so well! Shops open at 1pm on a Sunday where we are and close at 6. To drive there and back, get parked, do all shopping, come home and put it away it takes me about 3 hours. By that time it’s at least 4pm and the day is practically over. Especially in winter when there are so little hours of natural light it’s a complete waste of a day.

It used to be very different! For the first 10 years or so after I was married (and throughout my childhood) all shops used to be closed at 5.30pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. On Wednesdays, all shops were closed at 1.30pm, for "early closing day".

All shops were closed on all bank holidays as well, so at Easter time they would be closed at 5.30pm on the Thursday (or 1.30pm if that particular town had its early closing day on a Thursday) and not open again until 9.00am the following Tuesday.

On Sundays, only newsagents and garages were open and there was a strict list of the things they were permitted to sell. We used to joke that on Sundays you could legally buy a copy of The News of the World but you couldn't legally be sold a Bible.

I 100% agree. The whole Sunday trading thing seems so out of date now and doesn’t fit with current working life. Sunday trading rules need to be scrapped. I’ve been moaning about this to my DH for years.

As someone who lives in Scotland I’ve never understood this. I used to work 5-10pm on a Sunday and did my shopping after I finished, was bliss how quiet it was!

@howshouldibehave 👍

There are two sides here. I can see both. It would be lovely to have a day geared to family time.

I think really the solution should be that society makes a few monumental changes to allow families to function how they did 50 years ago, when it was easier to find the time to shop on the other 6 days in the week?

Unfortunately these days, working families are more often that not pushing themselves to the limit. There really ISN'T the time on the other 6 days like there used to be. That's why so many want the hours to extend.

I work Sundays (paramedic) it sucks, I've missed out on so much over the years.

The less people who have to work Sundays the better, unless of course OP, you'd be picking up the Sunday shifts whilst the majority of the population have Sundays off to socialise, attend ones off events, recover from Saturday socialising, and spend time off with their small children during term times when it is one of only 2 days a week where that is an option.

Sunday work needs to be kept to the absolute minimum.

Errr no because not all of us work Mon-Fri! I have a cafe and if I have a busy Saturday I sometimes need extra milk etc on a Sunday morning, which involves a supermarket trip. And it makes it so much more difficult to have to go after 10. I bet all of you baying for “family time on Sundays” wouldn’t shout so loud if cafes, pubs, restaurants, zoos and other places that families use on their days off were closed on Sundays so that their staff could get family time too!

The idea of church of England peers flexing their muscles makes me feel a bit queasy ….

I hope people realise that just because the shop is shut it doesn't mean the staff are not working. Same as when Asda etc were trumpeting about closing Boxing Day the staff were expected to work or use annual leave or have it unpaid, not the big fanfair they made it out to be.
I worked in retail for 15 years we're not special and know the hours we are expected to work so shorter opening hours wouldn't affect us. We would have to make them up somewhere or get paid less.

Shops open at 1pm on a Sunday where we are and close at 6. To drive there and back, get parked, do all shopping, come home and put it away it takes me about 3 hours. By that time it’s at least 4pm and the day is practically over. Especially in winter when there are so little hours of natural light it’s a complete waste of a day.

If you are seriously spending that long on your grocery shopping every single Sunday, then I would be making alternative plans!