Just after Christmas, the first Sunday of the Sale proved to be enormously busy for most shopping centres. And with Boxing Day this year falling on a Sunday; this situation is a real concern for our industry.

This is an issue many of us face on Sundays throughout the year, as a full day’s trading is ‘squeezed’ into just a six hour period, now making Sundays hour-for-hour the busiest trading day of the week. Retailers try to overcome the problem by utilising ‘browsing’ hours before opening, while some centres like The Trafford Centre now allow those stores legally permitted to trade for longer on a Sunday to do so.

The whole situation is incredibly confusing for the customer, who cannot understand why some shops can open and others cannot, and they frankly couldn’t care what the reason is. They want to shop whey they want to, not when the government or anybody else tells them it is appropriate for them to do so. How can it be right for people to be allowed to go to some shops, to the cinema, to restaurants or even to drink in a bar all day long on a Sunday – but not be allowed to buy a jumper from a particular store simply because there is an arbitrary cut-off point in terms of that store’s size?

Society has moved on since the implementation of the current Sunday Trading legislation 16 years ago. Shopping on a Sunday is now quite normal for a great many people. So there is an opportunity here for the Government to take some positive action to support the hard hit retail sector at this difficult time.

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