BingMan
Member
- Joined
- 8 Feb 2019
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- 501
Sixty years ago I enjoyed cycling on virtually traffic free roads on a Sunday.How exactly does it affect you?
Not some thing that I can do today.
Sixty years ago I enjoyed cycling on virtually traffic free roads on a Sunday.How exactly does it affect you?
There may be factors other than Sunday trading that have also caused that though.Sixty years ago I enjoyed cycling on virtually traffic free roads on a Sunday.
Not some thing that I can do today.
You do know that many supermarkets are open until late or even 24 hours during the week? When I had an office job even allowing for a commute I managed to do a weekly shop one evening thereby keeping my weekends clear for other activities. And when on shifts the 24 hour opening came in handy from time to time. Perhaps you could plan your "essential but tedious" activities a little more efficiently.Sunday trading laws should be removed so that Saturday isn't the ONLY day where weekday workers have to do everything not possible during the week. I also think it's safe to say Sunday is not a religious day anymore (especially as a nation). If you want to treat it like a day of rest or leisure, that's your choice, but for most it could be more useful IMO.
You do know that many supermarkets are open until late or even 24 hours during the week? When I had an office job even allowing for a commute I managed to do a weekly shop one evening thereby keeping my weekends clear for other activities. And when on shifts the 24 hour opening came in handy from time to time. Perhaps you could plan your "essential but tedious" activities a little more efficiently.
So weekday daytime/evening/overnight is no use to you. And neither is Sunday daytime. Does that mean that Sunday evening is the only time you find convenient to go grocery shopping? You do realise that would put you in a very small niche market.Or you can open the shops and let people do what they like.
The irony within this statement is outstanding. I’m not a 9-5 weekday worker. I work in retail with quite flexible hours (including Sunday), and i’m not complaining that my job stops me from doing things in the week because it doesn’t.Perhaps you could plan your "essential but tedious" activities a little more efficiently.
The cost of keeping a retail store open in towns and cities to open for 10 hours on Sunday instead of 6 hours is covered by the revenue. Admittedly, it is dependent on location (and should be) but the Sunday Trading Laws directly prohibit the companies freedom to choose whether they should be open based on their market/customer base.Shopping habits have clearly changed, and people don't appear to be out super late to shop, or drink/eat, thus places are closing earlier.
If a supermarket wants to open longer, it has to pay for more staff. It has to determine if opening longer means more sales to pay for that, or whether the sales remain the same but spread out over a longer time. If the latter, why are you opening longer?
There seems to be no desire to go back to opening Tesco stores overnight, and pubs and bars seem to be back to closing at normal times. The cost of drinking out may likely play a part in this.. who can afford to stay out from 7 or 8pm until 2am?
I am sure if the retail and hospitality sectors were begging for longer opening hours to make more money, they'd be lobbying all day long. I suspect they're already aware that opening longer probably wouldn't bring them more money. Meanwhile the family run corner shop can open if it wants, so it seems like we are just fine as we are.
Yeah that’s precisely what I’m saying. I work in a large shopping centre that could stay open for a longer period. I’m not saying that every retail store should be open longer on Sunday, but that Sunday Trading Laws can be, and some times are a limiting factor.So retailers have done the research to show they'd definitely get additional revenue and not simply take it from another day/time?
That's perfectly possible for some retailers but I'm not convinced it would apply for all.
Stores that are open 24hrs are getting less and less. My local Tesco stopped some years ago and the local ASDA stopped being 24hrs just last week.You do know that many supermarkets are open until late or even 24 hours during the week?
Are there more or fewer cars around in general now than there were in 1965?Sixty years ago I enjoyed cycling on virtually traffic free roads on a Sunday.
Not some thing that I can do today.
Yeah that’s precisely what I’m saying. I work in a large shopping centre that could stay open for a longer period. I’m not saying that every retail store should be open longer on Sunday, but that Sunday Trading Laws can be, and some times are a limiting factor.
Lots more of course. But not enough to account for the massive increase in traffic density on SundaysAre there more or fewer cars around in general now than there were in 1965?
Not me personally but for someone yes.So weekday daytime/evening/overnight is no use to you. And neither is Sunday daytime. Does that mean that Sunday evening is the only time you find convenient to go grocery shopping? You do realise that would put you in a very small niche market.
Certainly up here, I would say Sundays are as busy if not busier than Saturdays.Scotland seems to manage with unrestricted trading so why can't E&W?
That seems more like a free-marketeer's favourite soundbite than a reasoned argument. Even with the competition from on-line shopping the supermarket chains continue to report good profits yet seem to want ever more. I would have more sympathy if they paid their front-line staff better especially for anti-social hours. Instead they seek to continually reduce staffing levels. As far as public demands go the main concern has been the reduction in staffed checkouts with customers being pushed into using self-checkouts especially late evenings/overnight. At least public pressure has forced supermarkets to row back some on this policy. That's a genuine choice that customers actually want.More choice is always better.
Yeah so this one was purely based on my experience. Regional managers / Store managers in my company often talk about how they would be open for longer if they could be, some of this is defined by centre management but overall it is defined by trading laws regardless.Can I ask how they did the research to establish that being open longer would generate extra business and not just shift it? And what types of retailers were/are they?
The thinking with supermarkets is perhaps a lot different to, say, a DIY store that loses sales if it can't be open extra early on a Sunday when someone wants to do some home improvement work - but opening earlier would mean losing sales later on.
Or maybe click and collect sales go down because there aren't enough slots.
I'm genuinely interested.
shops were habitually closed every Sunday (The Entertainer seems happy with this) then maybe we could debate, but six hours is quite a long time - and, as I said, smaller shops can legally open but likely are simply choosing not to.
If you want a genuine 24-hour society, that's fine. However, you need to be prepared to fund the transport to get people to and from work; it's not fair to expect low-paid people to pick up the tab because you can't be bothered doing your shopping at a more sociable hour!
Certainly agree having just spend the last 2 weeks in Scotland.Certainly up here, I would say Sundays are as busy if not busier than Saturdays.
I can relate this sort of use of closed time to something in my industry.Another practical consideration is that Sunday evening is often the time of the week in large supermarkets that's used to carry out tasks that are difficult to do when the shop is open. For example:
Refrigeration heavy maintenance
Floor scrub and seal
Stocktaking etc
I do work in a large shopping centre and often there is a large demand, as people are still within the centre 1-1.5 hours after closing time with bars and restaurants not being subject to Sunday Trading Laws and therefore still supplying some level of demand
I would be pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of those people fall into two groups:
- came there purely to eat
- came to shop during trading hours and stayed to eat afterwards
I would be pretty confident that the overwhelming majority of those people fall into two groups:
- came there purely to eat
- came to shop during trading hours and stayed to eat afterwards
I think that if people come to shop at centres socially rather based on necessity they should be open a bit longer to cater for different times, as the footfall isn’t concentrated in the same way that a supermarket is. That’s just my personal opinion though.so it's more likely people are there socially and to eat than shop
To be fair some of the task has developed into that time but it is extreely useful to have a longer close down on a Sunday evening. If that didn't exist then I could see a situatiuon where there might occasionally have to be early closures or late openings for 'engineering works'.I can relate this sort of use of closed time to something in my industry.
It turned out that in reality certain tasks being performed at a certain time were a result of usefulness rather than a necessity.
Do you consider it necessary to have that extended public free time to do some of those tasks listed or has it just been developed into the time it happens because that’s when it’s closed for longest?
For example if it suddenly opened 0700 to 2200 7 days would it not really be a problem to reschedule the tasks into the appropriate gaps?
Many theatre shows have Mondays off so bits of maintenance and the likes get done on the Monday, but then at times they bring Monday shows into the week, everything stills gets done, it just happens at other times.