To think it's time to abolish Sunday trading rules in England

[CurdinHenry]

And just have a more normal week

What has owing got to do with it. You started a conversation demanding to know why somebody thought something. People have happily engaged and let you know where that comes from. Your response is to now act like such a conversation is below you, and like it's some secret you need to keep.

Nobody owed you anything either. Nobody used that as an excuse in a place where the only reason to post is to engage, not waste the space saying you refuse to do so.

You can still do that. You don't have to go to the shops just because they're open.

I didn't ask anyone for anything - I asked the OP.

You are not the OP.

Kindly disengage so that the focus of the subject is not you and whatever grudge you have against Christians.

I can tell you're the type who likes to have the last word and be a real keyboard warrior.

Have a word with yourself.

I will not engage with you further.

Thing is, there are already lots of jobs that allow people to work more hours at weekends and many of them are in sectors that have chronic recruitment problems, like care and hospitality. People's revealed preference is not to work in jobs that offer weekend heavy hours. There isn't any evidence that we have a group of people wanting to work longer hours at weekends who are currently being prevented from doing so by Sunday trading laws.

Just anecdotally, having worked in retail on and off since I was 16, Sunday shifts are notoriously hard to fill. I work in one of the smaller convenience supermarkets so we are open till 11pm on Sundays and if someone goes sick or on annual leave it's really hard to get cover. I'd bet a lot of money if you asked the staff in the big shop if they want to start working late on a Sunday 99% would say no, they're no different from people working in any other sector

I've said for years that they should increase it to 8 hours. 9-5 would mean that people could shop when it suits them, employees would be able to work a full day for a full salary and it would help the economy.

It's not all about you though.

It's our tradition. Day of rest. Family time.

But not if you work in hospitality, a cinema, bowling alley, etc. The sacred caste of retail is for some reason the only one deemed worthy of this special day of rest.

Anyway I don’t mind saying when everything was shut on Sundays during my childhood they were as boring as fuck. Church and then mum and dad dozing on the couch. Bugger all else to do or places to go and no public transport so visiting people or places was out of the question. I’m glad there are things to do now,

We still work a full day Sunday. I don’t know why people can’t grasp that we are still in when the store is closed to customers. How do you think the shelves get filled ready for Monday, fairies?

I think it's a good idea as shops struggle enough from competition from online.

It would give shops a fighting chance of staying open on the high street if they could trade longer on one of the busiest retail days.

I've worked in retail for 20 + years

I worked retail as a student and have worked over weekends many times in my professional job too. I actually like it as I like having days off during the week when places are quieter. My husband has also worked in hospitality his whole working life. I don’t think we need the state to decide when our shops can open. If places aren’t busy on Sundays they can choose to close.

Aren't they also closed on Saturday afternoons in Germany?

When I worked shifts, being able to do a big shop in Tesco at 8.30pm on a Sunday would have been really handy.

Not that I'm aware! Or not in the area I live in anyway.

I think someone else upthread mentioned that they did close early Saturdays in the past, but not anymore.

They do still have A LOT of religious bank holidays where everything is shut too though.

Yes, it was over 20 years ago that I cycled into the centre of Bremen from the suburbs on a Saturday afternoon to find it deserted with all shops and museums closed

All the posters making comments like “But why do we neeeeeed more shopping hours, surely there’s already enough?”, “Why can’t people be more organised?” and “Shops weren’t open at all on Sunday when I was a kid - we managed!!” are all missing the point. The point is, why is 2026 do we need the government to tell us when we can and can’t go shopping? Why is this a legal issue instead of a business one?

Shops being able to open for longer doesn’t make it obligatory. People are arguing that supermarkets will struggle to find staff or that the same spend will just be spread over a longer time period - none of that is an argument for it being prevented by law. Individual businesses would still be able to tailor their hours according to customer demand, costs v profit etc., just as they do for the rest of the unrestricted week.

The big Tesco near me used to open 24 hours from Monday to Saturday. They started closing at 11 because, as online shopping grew in popularity, the demand for longer hours went down. Our Waitrose used to open at 8 and had two late opening nights - then they realised that since our local train station (just around the corner) had got an upgraded service, they were missing out on morning trade from passing commuters, so they ditched late opening and used the staff hours gained to open at 7.30 instead. There’s nothing to stop stores sticking to their current Sunday hours if the law changes.

I’m amused by the number of people wailing about staff deserving time off in one breath a then saying to just go to a convenience store or get an online delivery in the next. Who do you think staffs convenience stores? Who picks, packs and delivers your online orders? I also wonder if any of the people saying Sunday should be for lovely precious family time ever take their family to a restaurant or a pub or the cinema or bowling alley on a Sunday as part of that “together time”. They never seem particularly bothered about the staff in those places.

I think you have misunderstood how research works. When you’re the one making the claim, you’re the one who needs to back it up.

Especially when the source material provided, with which they are disagreeing, is from a questionnaire that has a response rate of circa 95% of the population and is pretty much the gold standard for data collection.

I came here to say this too. As a former waitress, people always used to go on about how retail staff deserve the time off with their families so they can go out for a nice family meal....where I would be working also on minimum wage and never getting that guaranteed family time.

In Western Australia, supermarkets are open 8am - 9pm M - F, 8am - 5pm Saturday and 11am - 5pm on Sundays. Sunday shopping was only introduced in 2012. I actually wish Sundays were closed.

People are arguing that supermarkets will struggle to find staff or that the same spend will just be spread over a longer time period - none of that is an argument for it being prevented by law.

It's an argument for the people advocating for change to give the practicalities even a smidgen of thought, though. Which unfortunately most haven't. The OP has entirely failed to.

At best, what we get is people who have assumed that because they want a service to exist, there must also be a supply of people who are ready and willing to perform it. On the basis of nothing at all.

Personally I'd have no principled objection to any of this if we had good reason to think it would work, but there's a big gap where that part is. Because there's potential for reform to make things worse not better, so people are entirely reasonable not to want legal change without any working out being shown.

Why? Why does it affect you if they are open? You don’t have to go

I always have to remember that Northern Ireland shops open really late on a Sunday.
I travel from the south, only 12 miles and find myself standing in empty M&S car park at 11am wondering where the fuck everyone is.

Why? Because you need butter at 8pm? Whats the point. I doubt there’s anything anyone needs urgently outside of trading hours that can’t be bought from a corner shop.

As someone who worked retail for years, in both Scotland and England and including Sundays, I never particularly minded working Sunday shifts (they suited me well at the time) but I did find Sunday trading hours in England frustrating because it meant I was effectively losing a whole day to work but only getting paid for 6 hours as opposed to a full day's shift. Starting at 10 and finishing at 4 didn't really leave me with much time to actually enjoy the day once travel was factored in, but it also resulted in less pay than my other working days. Personally I think shops should either be open normal hours on a Sunday or just fully closed - the halfway house of Sunday trading isn't actually giving staff a chance to 'relax and enjoy the day'.