Sunday: Day of rest or shoppers delight?

stars_n_moons22

I moved down from Bonnie Scotland to Englandshire about 4 years ago and the first sunday I was here I made the massive mistake of not going to buy my sunday tea until 3:50pm...
lo and behold I was unceremonially told by the local tesco employee where I could get myself off too if I wanted to buy anything at this time on a Sunday... This then left me stranded in a hotel room with no food and no car and no way to get either as I didn't know where the nearest late night alldays or mace or spar was.
since then I've been stung by this more than once.
I appreciate that people do not want to work longer hours and get paid less but the big supermarkets in Scotland that are open 24hrs take account of this. my mum recently started working for Tesco and they do pay extra for weekend work (double time on Sundays) and my mum is not required to do weekend work as they have specific weekend staff and if she does work weekends (when she chooses to ) it is paid at double time.

Come on England, let's have proper 24 hour shopping! PLEASE!!!!

Stars_n_moons

popsie

Sunday should be a day for families, not for shopping. Even God rested on the 7th day, and we need to do this, to catch up with ourselves. I'm not in favour of longer Sunday shopping hours, I'm actually in favour of them being banned. They are only in the interest of large companies, not in our interests really. OK I agree it's good to be able to buy milk on Sunday if you run out, but if you had a day to catch up with everything once a week, you might be organised enough not to run out. Nowadays, with home shopping being delivered, there's really no excuse.

If you work all week like I do, the last thing you want to do on Sunday is go shopping.

We all shop too much anyhow.

Hunnymonster

Of course that pre-supposes that everyone is a practising Christian in the country - other faiths have other holy/rest days, and of course many people (possibly the majority) profess no faith at all.

Nobody is forcing you to shop on a Sunday, just as nobody is forcing you to go to the church/mosque/synagogue/temple/Stonehenge - it's all about choice, and for some of us that choice is to be able to go out and do stuff with our families on days other than Sunday.

doozer

:mad: I can't believe there are so many people out there that want to force their world view on the rest of us because they think it's right (whatever right means in this context - but that's another question).

If you don't want to go shopping on Sunday then don't go but don't force me not to.

As for having one non-hectic day what are you people going on about. The shops don't force you to run around buying things. If you want a non-hectic day just have one. Why do you have to force everyone else to do the same as you?

If your argument is that it is a religious thing that I'm sorry but you are now in the miniroty in this country (thankfully) so leave us sane people alone!

Ok, rant over. I think I have annoyed enough people for one day.

daveborland

I work on Sundays (part time - student) and i'm slightly hesitant about having longer hours as I’d be worried that the company (large corp.) I work for would force me into longer hours and if I refused, I can't see it being that pleasant.

mellyp

I am firmly in the 'don't increase the hours' camp.

My sister works for a local wholesaler, who opens on Boxing Day and she says the amount of people there on that particular day is incredible.

Don't even give themselves time to digest their turkey/insert your own xmas dinner here.

They have to go out and shop, shop, shop. Does my head in.

sparkymark_3

I work for large food retailer and we only trade for 6 hours on Sundays (The Law), it is nice to be certain that you will go home on time at least once a week. Some members may find service poor in stores on Sundays - this is because experienced staff do not/will not work on Sundays (they are protected in law to be able to opt out at any time) so you tend to get teenagers/new recruits at these times, and labour turnover is higher in retail for evenings/weekends naturally as most people want to spend time with their families esp. if partner works Mon. to Fri. Another thing to bear in mind is that major maintence/refit work etc. takes place in a lot of stores at weekends after trading hours, if stores are allowed to open longer then you may find yourself shopping in a glorified building site !! Also stock replenishment costs will increase, in some stores these days you have to hunt for staff during off-peak days Eg. Tuesdays as everything is geared around Friday / Saturdays which is a shame as it much more pleasant to shop off peak.

Squealer

Now we have 7 day trading I don't think it would make a whole bunch of difference what time shops close. I used to be in favour of extended days/hours but as I've got older I've begun to realise what's nice and convenient isn't always the best thing for society as a whole. Bit by bit, things like this are gradually changing our culture and I'm not sure it's for the better.

I travel to France quite a lot and I now prefer their approach where they seem to have a more traditional lifestyle that makes time for leisure/proper mealtimes/families. It's beginning to change there too though.

littlemissfrugal

Trix that is so true!!!! I work for a supermarket (the biggest) and although i have escaped having to work sundays so far there is pressure to do so especially if you are trying to advance your prospects - when i have worked a sunday i can't beleive how busy it gets do people really have so little else they can do. My OH works in retail too for a swedish company.. and he HAS to work every other sunday also late nights and early mornings - of course he has a day off in the week to make up but i am at work kids at school so not much family life going on - upshot being as a family we get 2 days a month off together and we dont go shopping we go to ..church

so its bad enough as it is

Helen_from_yorkshire

I think opening hours should be increased on a Sunday to match the other days of the week. People here are talking about "family days" - how many people in the country have a family day on a Sunday - think of all those people that have to work, forces, emergency services, hotel staff, petrol stations, motorway service stations - what difference will it make. All these people have to have their family days on other days of the week, everyone else, well if they choose to have their family day on a Sunday, they don't have to go shopping!