Sunday Trading: Good for business?

Under current legislation, shops in England and Wales measuring more than 280 sq m (3,000 sq ft) can open for a maximum of six hours between 10:00 and 18:00 on Sundays; however, supermarkets and large stores have been allowed to open for longer during the seven week period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The debate currently raging is over whether or not to make the relaxation permanent, especially as the current rules do not make any sense to the average consumer. Did you know that Small shops, those with an area of below 280 square metres, are free to set their own Sunday trading times and that some large shops, such as off-licenses, garden centres, service stations and garages, are exempt from the restrictions altogether.

We thus have the ridiculous situation in many towns, of two Tesco stores a mile apart, one has to close at 4pm on Sunday, but the second stays open until 10pm, because it is smaller in size. The restrictions were meant to protect the small independent retailers; however with most of the big operators now opening smaller versions of their main stores, is there any point in continuing to restrict opening times on Sunday?

Whilst Saturday has always been the busiest trading day of the week, Sunday is in second place and the reason; the bulk of shopping is by couples (whether the man wants to or not) and by far the most convenient days are the weekend. Small shop owners are increasingly seeing Sundays as their second best trading day and take their day off on one of the two quietest shopping days, Monday or Tuesday.

The general public increasing want and ask for flexibility, they get it on the internet so why not on the High Street?

We open on Saturday mornings every week to make life easier for you, to book an appointment or to find out more please contact us