Shops/Stores - extending opening hours on the Sabbath?

[smudge]

What do you think of the new proposals to extend the opening hours in shops/stores on Sundays?

[kick3m0n]

great idea...why not?  if folk want to shop, let them shop.   Sunday is not a significant day for the vast majority of UK residents, and with people working full weeks, often a sunday is a very convenient day to do shopping.  That said, I'm Scottish, and we've had sunday shopping for years......land of enlightenment and all that  (LOL!!!). 

[libertie]

To what extent smudge? Here in Scoland the shops / stores (and pubs)! already open on Sundays anyway usually from 11am until 6pm. My local supermarkets Tesco / Asda have 24 hour opening 7 days a week!

[boobesque]

i think its great, and very convinient! but i'm not religious anyway

[bernardo]

Brilliant!  On Sundays the supermarket is only open 11am to 5pm, which is sometimes very inconvenient.

[ursula62]

There's much made by church folk of shop workers' rights to "keep Sunday special", but other professions, e.g. doctors, nurses, firemen, policemen, prison officers etc have to work a full shift system including Sundays, so I don't see why shopworkers could be considered a special case.

Hey, even Vicars have to work Sundays!

When I was a nurse I loved working weekends and having 2 days off mid week as the shops, libraries, parks etc were much emptier.

[smudge]

I agree with you all. There's nothing worse than having a BBQ on a Sunday afternoon, only to find you've run out of Chops! I go to Church for Weddings, Christenings & Funerals, but I'm not religious, so it wouldn't bother me at all.

An abbr' report from my newspaper:

'Megastores fight for longer Sunday hours. Chain stores & Supermarkets are planning to turn Sundays into 'ordinary' shopping days. Industry leaders are now pressing for Sunday hours to be extended from 6 hrs to 9 hrs. We are not talking 24 hour opening & total derugulation, but rather an extra couple of hours at the end of the day & an hour at the beginning'.

I can only ssume they intend for a 09:00 'til 18:00 Sunday trading - not sure which way it will go yet, but we shall find out in due course - if at all....  

[mystress]

I think it's about time,why did they not allow "all day" shopping on a Sunday to start with,these short hours on a Sunday do nothing for nobody.

When I was a BT Telephonist I worked EVERY Sunday,and nobody said THAT was wrong.

[smudge]

*assume

[acw]

I agree with everything said!  I recently spent 6 months in Germany and they don't have sunday trading there.  It's amazing how reliant we've become on that 7th day of shopping.  Workers' rights are reasonably well protected and very few firms would force staff to work on Sundays.  I hope not anyway!

[Grunty]

We should all be able to respect the views of others, but that doesn't mean we have to have them forced on us.

There are more people in this country who worship in Mosques than in Churches (not those who claim to have the religions, but those who go there to pray), so Sundays seem to have less importance than years ago.

[acw]

I agree with Grunty, but we should still remember that Christianity is the official religion of this country.  I personally am not 100% sure that we should have an "official" religion at all. 

I also think that the religious arguements about Sunday trading are just used by some people to try and combat commercialism and capitalism. 

Again, I agree that if folk DON'T want to shop on sundays, they are free to boycott shops on that day!

[jake-the-peg]

Yes *providing* the store workers get enough protection. It would need to be explicitly illegal to force shop workers to work Sundays either directly or by changes to their terms and conditions.

Organised Christianity is nearly dead in western Europe. In 1999 less than 8% attended church and it's been suggested that that could be below 0.5% in 40 years

Even in France the Catholic church is having to import priests from Africa because it can't recruit enough at home.

I think the democratic thing to do is give Sunday services the last rites and go to the DIY store

[sunflower68]

I agree totally with the new proposals; we need to move on with the times and the general feeling of the Brits.  I am still always amazed how busy it can get in the shops on a Sunday and it really is our new 'religion', like it or hate it.  We can't hang on to the past forever; the same goes for the licensing laws.

Having got used to Sunday opening for 8 years or so, you get to rely on popping to Tesco.  I hate the fact that you know you only have till 4 or 5pm to get the last minute bits - perish the thought it interfere with a lovely sunday bbq!

[dmsjps]

I agree with everybody. Sunday is usually the only day both my husband and I are free and if we go shopping we're always clock-watching. I hate it. It was different when people worked shorter hours - and mums often didn't work at all - and there were lots of local shops selling everything you would need on your doorstep, but now it's changed.

[dmsjps]

And if the Church wants more people to go, they should make them feel more welcome when they do, instead of the 'snotty' air that's there now.

[fibifooz]

I hope its not a wind up, Normal hours on a Sunday would be great, no more rushing to catch the shops on a Sunday.  ROLL ON

[stevie21]

Has ANYONE objected?
I used to work in a shop and worked any Sunday I could as I was paid extra. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I was in a church/chapel although I was raised a Catholic. I certainly wouldn't still claim to be any kind of Catholic now - least of all practising (atheist now).

The number of people who practise (sp?) this religion is small so it's no surprise that shops open and trade on a Sunday.

[silly moo]

I am a churchgoer, and I really don't see a problem as long as people are not made to work if they would normally go to church.
Not only do all the emergency services have to be staffed, all Monday papers are printed on Sunday; we have electricity, gas, phones etc.
I agree with the comments about shopworkers being the same as everybody else.

For those who said church should be more welcoming - please try another church sometime. We are not all snotty and unfriendly.

[dmsjps]

silly moo, sorry if I offended you, but all the ones I've tried have been. I live in a very rural place and it just seems to be very old-fashioned in that respect. I lived in a city when I was younger and the curate was cool: there were loads of us in Crosstalk leading up to confirmation.

[LeMarchand]

Got to start work, so just a quick post for now.

I'd like to know how many of the "shops should open Sundays" people would be happy if their working week was altered to include weekends too.

I spent many years in retail, and when Sunday opening was first made legal some of the larger stores immediately changed their contracts to those who were willing to sign to include Sunday as a standard working day. I strongly suspect that any management who did not sign were seen (unofficially, of course) as not "team players".