supermarkets

[gpierce]

How come that Supermarkets have to shut at 4 on a Sunday, but places like Spar Shops are open till 9pm every night, but places like tesco have to shut at 4pm on a sunday???

[Greedyfly]

I work in a music shop and we are only allowed to trade from 11am until 5pm - its the law. We can open earlier but we can not sell anything until 11. I am pretty sure it is simular for most places but conveiniance stores are allowed to open later.

[paulz]

I thought it had something to do with [a] Square footage of the shop & [b] the range of goods they sell - thought there was one of those bizarre laws that you couldn't buy a bible on a Sunday, but you could buy carrots. Our locals were open Easter Sunday whereas the majors and chain DiY's had to close.

[darth vader]

different classifications of shop. The Spa/coop/Nisa etc is classed as a convenience store rather than superstore (supermarket - Tescos Asda etc) and is allowed to apply for a different trading licence allowing trade (in England and Wales that is - Scotland has it's own laws) up until 10pm on a Sunday. the superstores are NOT allowed to apply for this licence. I'm not sure if this is vicey versey i.e. the Superstore-type licence allowing them to open 24 hours through the week whereas convenience stores can't. i'll ask the lady at the co-op when i'm at lunch...

[Numbers]

I recall that when the Sunday trading laws were relaxed, the dividing line with regard to either being open for six hours or all day had something to do with the shop having 3,000 square feet of trading space - anything above this fell into the 'restricted' category.

I can't remember the specifics, but one or two of the larger shopping malls (Trafford Centre, Meadowhall etc.) keep slightly later hours on Sundays by opening 11am-5pm or 12pm-6pm.

[Gef]

Must be different in Scotland. Tesco is open 24 hours, t days a week and even the city centre (small) Safeway stays open until 10pm. There are also lots of 24 hr stores (minimarkets).

[IndieSinger]

Yeah I've seen lots of 24-hour Tescos in England too. The only thing is, they section off the alcohol section at a certain time on a Sunday to comply with alcohol-selling laws.

[AllYourBase]

Loedekka has the right idea. The Sunday trading laws act created a cutoff is based on shop size (in England and Wales anyway) that limits Sunday trading to a maximum of six hours. I can't remember the actual figure. Shops below this size are classed as convenience sores and all could technically open, but few do. Total exemptions are granted to chemists, airport and railway station shops. In addition to this, there are the alcohol licensing laws which restrict sales at certain times and have interesting specifics, such as in Scotland, where is is illegal to sell meths at the weekend.

[Numbers]

IndieSinger - off the top of my head, 24 hour supermarkets are allowed to sell alcohol between 8am-11pm on weekdays.