Limited Trading on Sundays

Chester85

I'm all for extended hours. I was a senior retail manager for most of my career and often the only day I got off was a Sunday and it was frustrating trying to pack in food shopping along with other shopping

Towards Christmas, Sundays are as profitable as a Saturday

Most staff don't get paid any premium on a Sunday now and most companies have abandoned the opt out for it because so many people want to work the Sunday

Very few people work the standard 9-5 Mon Fri hours now, we need to be more flexible in our hours. The vast majority of our retail stores are staffed by 'Sunday staff' people who choose to work that day, students, mothers who have the kids during the week, people that don't likle Sundays at home!

Businesses won't go around waving sticks making people work, if anything they may even hire more staff

It's not the 80s or 90s anymore. Jolly little family Sundays can happen any day of the week and the idea that Sunday is somesort of sacronsanct day of bliss and quiet (when in reality its !!!! end boring) is laughable

The change to the hours is inevitable

Jules22

I work in Retail and I work on Sundays.

Do I want longer hours? No I damn well dont!

If the general public cant plan for their precious weekends off then why should us Retail workers get the flack for it. We get enough moans and groans, we dont need any more.

2 days a year the shop shuts, low pay and long hours.

The British public need to get a life if shopping is their only interest.

Storck

Chester85 - If you used to work in retail and the only day off you got was Sunday it is a good job shops didn't open on Sundays or you wouldn't have got that. As for getting rid of the Sunday opt out as far as I know it is a legal thing and companies can not get rid of it as you said. People can opt out of Sunday working whenever they want as long as they give notice, nothing the company can do.

sunnysea83

Storck wrote: »

I work in retail and can not see why other sectors do not open more hours either. Banks could start opening 24 hours a day, followed by schools, and all council offices.

Does my head in when I leave work on a night and can not go to the bank or ring the council. Worse thing is that schools are only open during the day, open them all hours and let people pick when they send their kids to school.

Councils couldnt afford to open longer hours, they coudlnt afford the staff and are all having to make massive cut backs so you may find that they will close even earlier on the phones

As for schools - if they opened later when do you think teachers will do their lessons plans? attend meetings? mark work? set work? mark coursework? etc etc

I think there are some people who benefit from places like tescos opening later - peharps people with young children, whose partners work during the day and they can then go to work in the evening when the partner is home.

WIth regards to sunday trading - I think that shops should be allowed to open 9 to 5 if they wish - there will always be people willing to work. From next year I hope to be back at uni and will be looking for weekend work and an extra 2 hours or so a week on a sunday would make a big difference monthly. It often gets to 3.30 on a sunday and I realise i need something from town and its too late to go get it and i cant go during the week as I work 8 till 5 and dont get in till 5.30pm - im so busy on a sunday that the extra hours to be able to pop to the shops would be lovely espically near christmas

I would also love it if the post office opened longer on a sat and possibly a sunday!:A

Storck

Nice and easy for councils to open longer, just put up the council tax. Sorted.

If shops closed at a decent time then it wouldn't cost them as much as the night period is not profitable. Close at night and the cost would reduce and overall the need for price rises would reduce.

property.advert

I lived next to a 24/7 Asda but closing at 10pm on Saturday and opening only 11-5 on Sunday was a real inconvenience. Not all people work 9-5 council jobs and commute 10 minutes to work you know. Getting up at 5/6am, coming home at 7/8pm or later all week means you need 24/7 and want it all weekend as well.

Open the shops, religion is dead and like pubs, if they don't want to open they won't.

System

It seems stupid that small shops can open as long as they like and yet big shops are only allowed to open for 6 hours. I don't see why it is ok for tesco express to be allowed to be open when a big tesco can't be. If they relaxed the opening hours then most shops would probably just do a standard 9-5 day. Its only the supermarket who would open longer than that. I am sure in the next few years this rule will be abolished. I remember when you couldn't get a pint in the afternoon as all the pubs shut, this law will go the same way.
I don't think the staff argument holds water as at the end of the day you can only be legally forced to work 48 hours a week anyway so if stores want to open longer on a Sunday they will probably have to hire extra staff.

Storck

property.advert wrote: »

I lived next to a 24/7 Asda but closing at 10pm on Saturday and opening only 11-5 on Sunday was a real inconvenience. Not all people work 9-5 council jobs and commute 10 minutes to work you know. Getting up at 5/6am, coming home at 7/8pm or later all week means you need 24/7 and want it all weekend as well.

Open the shops, religion is dead and like pubs, if they don't want to open they won't.

As I said before open all businesses the same hours and give everyone the same chance to do the business they want to not just shopping.

giraffe69

Six hours is more than enough for anyone to do their shopping, why would you need more than 6 hours?

What is the point of this petty regulation? If the demand is not there then the shops will close, if it is there they will open. Too many people who want to regulate when you can buy things and what you can buy. Should we go back to the days when furniture stores used to give away a 3 piece suite if you bought a pound of carrots at £500 on a Sunday because of the absurd trading laws. It must be an effort to justify opening more than 6 hours a day because your store is less than x square metres.

Storck

It is hard enough to get enough staff and managers to work on a Sunday as it is. If the opening hours were longer it would increase the issues. Even people employed for Sunday have the option to opt out, that is by law.