Sunday Trading Laws
- Thread starter Cyanide
- Start date
It makes no difference at all to the workers of the supermarkets save for maybe one or two cashiers. There's very little downtime in the large supermarkets themselves with deliveries and restocking and so on. They could do what they do overnight and close the deli and bakery, any clothing, electrical sections, etc. and just have a skeleton staff on the tills. They'd be able to spread the Sunday working among the cashiers so thinly that it'd barely be noticeable.
Add that to the fact that there are smaller Tesco, Sainsbury's, Co-op stores open until 11pm or midnight dotted all over the place and how does stopping the larger supermarkets trading make any difference?
Add that to the fact that there are smaller Tesco, Sainsbury's, Co-op stores open until 11pm or midnight dotted all over the place and how does stopping the larger supermarkets trading make any difference?
whats this double sunday time you speak of ?
Doesn't add to the cost? Right...
Once again it's all down to the convenience of the customer.
Quite. As it should be, just as long as it's not to the major detriment of anyone else, which I can't see that it is.
I'm all for Sunday opening hours. I'm convinced by this notion of 'it will ruin family time'.
And how did people manage before the internet, online shopping or hell, even before electricity
Times change and this isn't the 60's anymore
Soldato
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Personally I'm of the opinion it's a good thing this bill got voted down. There are plenty of hours in the week for people to get their goods from the high street shops and supermarkets. I value my weekends and I'm sure there are plenty of families who do too. Also with I feel with larger supermarkets not allowed to open it supports small shops.
Before I respond to the rest of your post I just wanted to say that's entirely fine
This isn't true for all. My wife and I both work full time jobs and I spend a lot of time traveling so before and after work the kids need to be dropped off/picked up. Monday to Friday this leaves no time at all, Saturday is leisure day so this weekend the kids are going to the local jungle gym type thing then in the afternoon I'll be going to football. On Sunday morning I get as much DIY done as I can meaning trips to B&Q or Wickes or similar much of the time, then in the afternoon we usually go see my parents and have a sunday roast.
Where does shopping fit in? We have to rush it in one night in the week, whereas if we could go after we've seen the family on the Sunday all would be much easier.
Absolutely I value my weekends, but there's very little time in the week to do any shopping if homework and development with the kids is to be done, as well as cooking tea, getting it eaten, getting them washed and sorted for bed, etc. Shopping on a midweek evening is chaos with kids if you want them to have anything like a normal bedtime.
If you mean it supports the same chains as the big supermarkets but increases their takings in their smaller stores then I would agree, I wonder whether there is any impact at all on any independents that are left.
Soldato
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Before I respond to the rest of your post I just wanted to say that's entirely fine
This isn't true for all. My wife and I both work full time jobs and I spend a lot of time traveling so before and after work the kids need to be dropped off/picked up. Monday to Friday this leaves no time at all, Saturday is leisure day so this weekend the kids are going to the local jungle gym type thing then in the afternoon I'll be going to football. On Sunday morning I get as much DIY done as I can meaning trips to B&Q or Wickes or similar much of the time, then in the afternoon we usually go see my parents and have a sunday roast.
Where does shopping fit in? We have to rush it in one night in the week, whereas if we could go after we've seen the family on the Sunday all would be much easier.
Absolutely I value my weekends, but there's very little time in the week to do any shopping if homework and development with the kids is to be done, as well as cooking tea, getting it eaten, getting them washed and sorted for bed, etc. Shopping on a midweek evening is chaos with kids if you want them to have anything like a normal bedtime.
If you mean it supports the same chains as the big supermarkets but increases their takings in their smaller stores then I would agree, I wonder whether there is any impact at all on any independents that are left.
If you were a single parent you would have some points but most of what you've written there implies you and your missus are doing both things together for example...
They are all one parent jobs, why can't you go shopping whilst your wife is doing the chores above, or vice versa.
As I said, I travel a lot. It's usually Tues/Weds and sometimes more that I'm away. When I'm back I don't want to be rushing around trying to grab everything we need, so in effect midweek she is doing a single parent role if I'm away. We can't take our time getting the big shop out of the way on Sundays, the reason for not allowing Sunday trading extensions is actually impacting our family time, forcing us to have it where it doesn't best fit.
We get by fine, but it would be easier for us if these changes had been made and the reasons for not doing so don't work for us.
We get by fine, but it would be easier for us if these changes had been made and the reasons for not doing so don't work for us.
Before I respond to the rest of your post I just wanted to say that's entirely fine
This isn't true for all. My wife and I both work full time jobs and I spend a lot of time traveling so before and after work the kids need to be dropped off/picked up. Monday to Friday this leaves no time at all, Saturday is leisure day so this weekend the kids are going to the local jungle gym type thing then in the afternoon I'll be going to football. On Sunday morning I get as much DIY done as I can meaning trips to B&Q or Wickes or similar much of the time, then in the afternoon we usually go see my parents and have a sunday roast.
Where does shopping fit in? We have to rush it in one night in the week, whereas if we could go after we've seen the family on the Sunday all would be much easier.
Absolutely I value my weekends, but there's very little time in the week to do any shopping if homework and development with the kids is to be done, as well as cooking tea, getting it eaten, getting them washed and sorted for bed, etc. Shopping on a midweek evening is chaos with kids if you want them to have anything like a normal bedtime.
If you mean it supports the same chains as the big supermarkets but increases their takings in their smaller stores then I would agree, I wonder whether there is any impact at all on any independents that are left.
Seems like bad planning...
How else would you plan it? I don't want to miss football on Saturdays, I don't want the kids to not see their grandparents on Sunday lunchtimes, the DIY in the house needs to be done at some point, and it needs to be done when the DIY shops are open, and midweek I'm away a lot of the time with work.
We could go shopping Saturday morning and sometimes do, but if there are kids activities we can do we're making a choice between shopping and doing stuff with the kids that wouldn't have to be a choice if we could do the shopping later on Sundays.
Well done on a properly formed response by the way.
Nothing more to say. As a parent you prioritise. Food in the house for the family or personal activity in Football?
Once a month big shop and then rest top up like milk and bread. 1 day out of a month to do a big shop.
Really.not that hard to plan. Do it on your own at night?
Soldato
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You know you can do the big shop and get it delivered nowadays? My mother and father are both retired and have all the time in the world but not even they still do "the big shop" thing any more. Standard weekly internet delivery then pick up odds & sods through the week.
Compare today to 20 years ago; you can sit on your bum and order an entire shop from your phone and the big supermarkets no longer close at 7pm in the week but are open 24/6. Being able to get stuff from a supermarket has never been easier, do we really "need" to remove a worker protection to cover a tiny niche of people like you who claim the only spare couple hours they get are on a Sunday evening?
Not quite what you are asking and we don't normally open 24x7 so customer awareness will be a factor but in the last 10 days before Christmas 0.06% (think this figure is profit not revenue but not sure) came from extended opening hours while the 6 hours we were open on Christmas Eve accounted for more than 14% of the take (revenue) over that time period.
That is largely the perspective I'm posting from rather than Sunday hours specifically.
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So it's fair that because it's an inconvenience to you and your family, trading hours should be extended which will inconvenience a lot of retail employees who also like to spend time with their families?
Funny that.
Soldato
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Well Im pleased its not gone ahead, retail distribution would have had a heavier work load on the Saturday before and I know full well the company I work for would not employ more staff but just make us work extra hours at the end of the shift.
So not only would longer Sunday trading hours effect those on the Sunday, but Saturday workers in the distribution sector would also have to do longer hours.
So not only would longer Sunday trading hours effect those on the Sunday, but Saturday workers in the distribution sector would also have to do longer hours.
Soldato
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Totally understand it can be difficult especially with young kids but as one poster has mentioned above there needs to be some degree of prioritisation that you decide. How will people working longer hours in the shops on Sunday get their downtime with their kids or do their hobbies/other commitments.
My wife and I both know the difficulties of getting to the shops with our rotas. I work usually one in three or four weekends (8.30am-9.30pm) and will regularly have a long day in the week again 9am to 9.30pm but you can still make time for shopping.
As for small shops, I did mean local independents stores rather than the small express branches of the large supermarkets. Sunday trading laws do infact help to support them quite a lot. My in-laws have a shop and finding staff it a nightmare on Sundays so they then do put in the long hours themselves but it keeps the business afloat.
Good.
All I've said is that it would be easier for us. Given that the large supermarkets are manned every single day of the week how is it helping anyone keeping them as they are? I've given an indication of a way it could help some people and I'm yet to hear an actual negative for changing them.
If it's protection of retail staff that you're after, why are you OK with the local shops being open 6am til midnight 7 days a week?
The people that would be negatively impacted by an extension to the trading hours would still be working much less than their colleagues in smaller stores and would be working the same hours as the shelf stockers and so on. I really don't see an issue with that.