General Discussion

Sunday trading hours are to be extended for the Summer Olympic Games. Chancellor George Osborne says the new hours may be made permanent.

Excellent idea. Sunday is no different from any other day. Very inconvenient with shops closed on Sundays.

Perhaps this will help the shops in town?

more staff wages, higher utility bills, less quality family time. I say all shops should close on Sundays and get some quality family life back!!! theres more to life than effing shopping

as from the 28th April the Coop(who I do not work for) will be open from 6am-23.00hrs Mon-Sat, so plenty of time to shop

I work as many other residence do all week with a long commute no time to shop during the week.

Having Sunday to shop would be ideal as that leaves Saturday for fun activities.

and what days do the staff who work in thses shops have for fun activities?

The staff can have some weekends off and some weekdays off pretty basic really.

If shops want to make money it would be a good idea to be open when people are available to buy.

thats not how it works unfortunately, mon-fri workers have no idea

Shops should not be prevented from opening on Sundays.

Agree with you Brazilnut...clearly people are happy to pay more for their items, someone has to pay for 7 days a week lighting etc, pennies would have to go on. So then a small shop with no staff, the owners are expected to work every single day of the week! ..Lovely!

Also imagine if pubs closed like they use to at 1030-11pm ...look at the money that would save on Police funds and NHS...perhaps people would agree if their Council Tax were to be reduced because of that. People did survive without 24/7 everything!

we agree on something then wondering, I work in the retail sector and the only time I get a weekend off is when Im on holiday. I get a day off midweek. Its the same with pubs I too think it would be good to go back to closing early and perhaps the extra hour Fri/Sat night for those who do have weekends off. And also we managed very well with closing afternoons!!!!! in pubs. Im afraid people have just got used to the 24/7 experience for everything.

@wondering. you mentioned the effect on small shops. i believe that you may have forgotten that the current 6 hour restriction on sunday trading is limited to shops that are larger than 3,000 square feet. i.e. small shops already can and do open for longer on sundays, up and down the country. if it wasn't economically/socially viable for them to do so, they wouldn't. as for restricting businesses' rights to open longer, i thought we lived in a free and progressive country - i don't want to turn the clock back to some mythical golden age that never really existed. in my opinion.

I think the small shops profit from being open all day on a Sunday, with the big boys being on restricted opening, and think it should remain like that. I for one do not want to waste what is my family day (Sun) shopping

If the shops are be allowed to open 24/7 it does not mean they have to.

I don't see any reason to restrict any shop's trading hours.

If you don't want to shop then don't shop. If you don't want to open then don't open.

All very simple.

dont be naive Paul, if they can they will!!!!!

well from what im hearing the post office staff will have extra time to shop midweek,from 1st April they are once again reducing the hours and this time its staying that way. Tuesdays Thursdays and Friday afternoons are going back to one window operation,remember to take a book along with you to pass the long wait.

Yet more reason not to go into Dawlish town centre?