Sunday shopping
Encyclopedia
Sunday shopping refers to the ability of retailers to operate stores on Sunday, a day that Christian
tradition typically recognizes as the Sabbath, a "day of rest". Rules governing shopping hours
, such as Sunday shopping, vary around the world but some Europe
an nations continue to ban Sunday shopping. Sabbatarian Christians who observe Saturday as the Sabbath oppose such laws.
is not uniform, as each of its States and Territories
has its own different laws. Historically, shops closed for the weekend on Saturday afternoons, with South Australia
being the first state to allow Saturday afternoon opening. Most states now allow Sunday opening, with unregulated trading in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Certain shops are generally made exempt, or partially exempt, from trading hours laws (including restrictions on Sunday trading) under certain conditions. Shops that are not exempt from trading hours restrictions are referred to as "general" or "non-exempt" shops. Although these vary from state to state, generally speaking, exemptions can be based on one or more of the following:
Under the current act, Sunday trading is unrestricted; however, shops must close on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and until 1:00 p.m. on ANZAC Day, unless exempted. Exemptions are granted generally by virtue of small size, location, types of goods traded; other shops must apply for an exemption to trade on a restricted day through the Department of Industrial Relations.
Prior to these laws, shops not generally exempted were required to apply to trade on Sunday and other public holidays, to be granted if the shop was "serving predominantly the tourist or visitor trade, significant public demand or operates in a holiday resort area". In practice however, Sunday trading remained commonplace.
; shopping is allowed at any time, except for Anzac Day
morning (before 1 p.m.), Good Friday
and Christmas Day. Victoria is also famous for first introducing round the clock 36 hour shopping before Christmas, even if this fell on a Sunday. In Victoria Boxing Day
is also one of the busiest days of the shopping year, and many stores are opened extended hours even if it falls on a Sunday. Victoria is one of only a select number of states which feature 24hr Kmart stores, open every day of the year except for Christmas Day.
are permitted to trade from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in certain coastal towns north of Brisbane. Permission for regional cities to trade on Sundays is made by the local council that governs it.
introduced Sunday trading for non-exempt shops in 2003. Non-exempt shops are restricted to opening between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Adelaide metropolitan area. Trading hours are also restricted in a number of "Proclaimed Shopping Districts" in country South Australia, where non-exempt shops must remain closed on Sunday. Local governments can apply to have their Proclaimed Shopping District altered or abolished.
metropolitan area - and generally, south of the 26° South line of latitude
- are regulated through the Retail Trading Hours Act 1987. Unless exempted, general retail shops in the Perth area must remain closed on a Sunday or public holiday.
Exemptions to allow continuous Sunday trading in the Perth area began in 1996, which permitted general shops in the central precincts of Perth
city and Fremantle
to trade between noon and 6 p.m. Further legislation in 2006 identified prescribed areas of Rockingham
, Rottnest Island
and Wanneroo
as "holiday resorts" to be treated as tourism precincts for exemption. In 2007, the Perth Sunday trading precinct was enlarged to take in adjoining suburbs such as Victoria Park
, Leederville
, Subiaco
and South Perth
. On 8 July 2010, Sunday trading was extended to Joondalup
, and on 1 November, to Armadale
and Midland
.
As of 2010, trading in these "Special Trading Precincts" is allowed on a Sunday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., and on a public holiday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. General shops must remain closed on Christmas Day, Good Friday and the whole of ANZAC Day, or as otherwise directed (for instance, New Year's Day 2011). Outside the Perth metropolitan area, general shops are closed by default, but councils are permitted to make an application for Sunday trading on behalf of their local government area.
Exemptions also apply to small shops (permitted to open 24 hours), filling station
s (24 hours, but restricted in types of goods after non-exempt trading hours), and to so-called "special retail shops" which are "considered necessary for emergency, convenience or recreation goods" (until 11:30 p.m.). In late 2010, the Barnett
-led state government sought discussion on extending an exemption to permit retailers of "'whitegoods' and certain other 'bulky' or 'consumer durable' goods" to trade on Sundays.
In 2005, Western Australian voters were asked to vote in a referendum on extended trading hours on week-nights and Sundays
, coinciding with the state election of that year
. Both questions—which proposed trading until 9:00 p.m. on week-nights, along with six hours of trading on Sunday—were firmly rejected, with only 38.6% of those voting in the referendum supporting the Sunday trading proposal.
have been deregulated since December 1, 2002, with shops only being required to close on Christmas Day, Good Friday
, and ANZAC Day
morning. Previously, businesses with more than 250 employees were not permitted to trade on Sundays. This restriction can be gazetted by the relevant minister for these shops, but only on the advice of a local council, and only after a referendum of voters in that local government area is carried.
(ACT) have been deregulated since the repeal of the Trading Hours Act 1996 on 29 May 1997. The 1996 act restricted trading of "large supermarkets" to between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sundays, provided other trading hours were not gazetted by the relevant minister. Large supermarkets were those with greater than 400m2
in floor area, and located in the City or the Belconnen
, Woden
and Tuggeranong
Town Centres.
may open on Sunday afternoons. In March
2006 the number of Sunday opening days increased from three to up to nine. Six of these are determined by the federal government and three may be determined by municipalities. In addition the criteria which a municipality must meet to be recognised as a "tourist centres" were relaxed.
There are also arrangements for food stores to open on Sunday and wider arrangements for Sunday opening of certain sectors such as furniture and do-it-yourself stores and garden centres.
upheld the Lord's Day Act. However, at that time, only the Canadian Bill of Rights
existed. That document only protected existing Canadian rights. As a result, the Court noted that Canada was an overwhelmingly Christian country that had accepted Sunday closing laws for years. The Court determined that the Lord's Day Act did not force people to practice Christianity or stop practicing their own religion.
However, later that year, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
was introduced, ensuring freedom of conscience and religion, regardless of existing federal or provincial laws. On April 24, 1985 - the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Lord's Day Act violated Canadians' freedom of religion. The 1985 ruling examined the original purpose of the act. It found that the Christian value of keeping the Sabbath holy had been incorporated into a law that affected all Canadians, Christian or not. This law—the Lord's Day Act—prevented non-Christians from performing otherwise legal activities on Sundays. This was inconsistent with the Canadian charter.
was the only province in Canada that prohibited year-round Sunday shopping. An experiment with the practice was held in 2003 and in 2004 a binding plebiscite was held which resulted in 45% of voters in favour of Sunday shopping and 55% voting against the practice. The Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act allowed some stores, such as video rental outlets, pharmacies and book stores, to open on Sundays, but department stores had to remain closed. The restrictions were based on the area of a store and its form of business.
By mid-2006, several grocers in Nova Scotia including Pete's Frootique
and larger chains such as Atlantic Superstore
and Sobeys
circumvented the law by reconfiguring their stores on Sundays into separate businesses, each of which was small enough in area to be exempt from the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act. For example, a Halifax-area Sobeys location was known as the "Sobeys Queen Street Mall" and housed the Sobeys Retail Fish Store Ltd., Sobeys Fruit Stand Ltd., Sobeys Bakery and Bulk Food Ltd. and eight other separate "businesses".
On June 23, 2006, the Premier of Nova Scotia
, Rodney MacDonald
, announced new limits on Sunday shopping as a means to honour the wishes of voters in the 2004 plebiscite. The proposed new regulations prohibited grocers and other retailers from opening if they reconfigured their businesses as separate operating units after June 1, 2006. The premier also announced that he would seek the views of the public in a new plebiscite to coincide with municipal elections scheduled for 2008.
On July 2, 2006 members of the Halifax Regional Police
entered the Barrington Street Atlantic Superstore
in Halifax with measuring tapes and began an investigation to see if the grocer was in compliance with the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act. Three days later, on July 5, 2006, Sobeys
filed a motion in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to have the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act and the new regulations announced by Premier MacDonald to be declared invalid. Sobeys was joined by Atlantic Superstore
in the case, who entered by seeking intervener status.
Sobeys
felt that the law was unjust since it permitted competitors such as Pete's Frootique
in Bedford to open Sundays. Pete's Frootique had taken the provincial government to court seven years earlier and won the right to open on Sundays with its separate operating divisions, thus it was "grandfathered" in the new regulations announced by Premier MacDonald.
On October 4, 2006, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ruled that the Government of Nova Scotia had over-stepped its authority by forcing the supermarkets to close. In response, Premier Rodney MacDonald announced that effective Sunday, October 8, Sunday shopping would be an unrestricted option open to all retail stores, and can be open on all holidays except Remembrance Day, for which there was a separate provincial law forcing all businesses to close. Since then, Sunday shopping has been adopted throughout the province.
In June 1990, the Supreme Court of Ontario found the act to be unconstitutional. As a result, Ontario had nine months of open-wide Sunday shopping, until the Ontario Court of Appeal
's reversal of the decision in March 1991.
However, public opposition to Sunday closing continued to rise. Bowing to public pressure, the Rae government amended the Retail Business Holidays Act in June 1992 to permit Sunday shopping in Ontario.
In Prince Edward Island
, it is only permitted after 12 noon from the Sunday before Victoria Day until Christmas Eve. This was repealed on November 25, 2010, allowing stores to open at any time on Sunday year-round.
In Manitoba
it requires municipal approval and it is only permitted from 12PM to 6PM each Sunday.
In New Brunswick
the decisions require dual approval from municipal and provincial officials (although that is in the process of being changed), otherwise it is only permitted from August to the First Sunday in January. Some cities (such as Saint John
and Fredericton) restrict Sunday hours to 12PM to 5PM.
In British Columbia
, most liquor stores are closed on Sundays.
In the 1990s, Quebec
allowed wide-open shopping from 8AM until 5PM; some stores (mainly supermarkets) could remain open later than 5PM, but they could not have more than four employees on staff after 5PM. The law was changed in the 2000s to allow supermarkets to remain open until 8PM with an unlimited number of employees.
Other provinces allow wide-open shopping all day on most Sundays (except when it falls on a holiday or when objected by municipalities).
n Government in order for Sunday shopping to be banned. Although it had worked for some time, the Croatian Constitutional Court declared banning Sunday shopping to be unconstitutional, and on April 28, 2004 issued a decision making it legal. The Church admitted defeat in the battle over closing shops on Sundays. However, on July 15, 2008, the Parliament of Croatia
, again under pressure from the Catholic Church, passed a new-old law banning Sunday shopping effective January 1, 2009. However, this new ban was also declared to be unconstitutional by the Croatian Constitutional Court on July 19, 2009 http://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/ustavni-sud-ponistio-odluku-o-zabrani-rada-nedjeljom.html and the Catholic Church admitted defeat once again http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/29063/crkva-je-priznala-poraz-u-borbi-za-neradnu-nedjelju.
. Several European trade unions, civil society organisations and churches attended the conference. László Andor
, the EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, responsible for a new draft of the Working Time Directive
, addressed the conference.
The following European Union countries currently allow shops to open every Sunday: Sweden, Finland, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, Bulgaria and Hungary.
The following European Union countries currently allow shops to open every Sunday on tourist declared towns and cities and currently have a very extensive list of them that includes capitals and major cities: Spain, France, Netherlands and Italy (country on which restrictions remain only at certain non touristic areas of the north).
shopping season beginning on the third Sunday of November and ending on December 23, to 9 pm (21:00). Sunday shopping was introduced in 1994.
In 2008, the furniture chain IKEA
was fined €450,000 (over $700,000) for trading on Sundays under the law of 1906. With the current law, IKEA stores are allowed to open every Sunday. However only the ones on the Paris metropolitan area actually do so.
, opening hours have long been restricted through the Ladenschlussgesetz
. The 1956 law required shops to close for the weekend at 2 p.m. on a Saturday and 6:30 p.m. on week-nights, with opening until 6 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month, in what was known as the Langer Samstag, or "long Saturday". The law was changed, in the face of strong resistance from labour unions, to allow langer Donnerstag ("long Thursday") until 8:30 p.m. in 1988, and in 1996 opening times were extended to 8 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday; this was extended to 8 p.m. on Saturday in 2004.
In 2004, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled against lifting restrictions on Sunday opening, which is still confined to some small bakeries and convenience stores inside railway stations and airports. However, in 2006, the responsibility for opening hours was transferred to the state
governments instead of the federal government, leading to an end to regulated Monday-Saturday opening hours in several states, such as Berlin. However, there is still strong resistance to Sunday shopping from churches and politicians. The leadership of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has expressed an interest in allowing Sunday shopping.
Most of the shops open on Sunday from 10-11am to 10-11pm.
, which is regulated by the Shops (Hours of Trading) Act, 1938. However, the act itself is largely inoperative, and as a result most shops and businesses may open whenever they please, including on Sundays and public holidays.
Major retail chains (such as supermarkets, department stores, stores that specialise in DIY, household goods, clothing, etc.) and many independent retailers open their branches throughout Ireland on Sundays usually from 10:00 to 19:00 in the larger towns and cities and from 12:00 to 18:00 in the smaller centres. In Dublin, almost all shops are open on a Sunday.
Supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations are open longer hours than other shops on Sundays, typically from early morning (06:00-10:00) to late evening (20:00-00:00).
Some supermarkets, such as Tesco
, are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
. Many smaller shops, most petrol stations, some food service outlets, and other retailers, such as pharmacies, are also open permanently - particularly in Dublin.
, all communities are (in principle) allowed to open shops for twelve Sundays a year. However, in the Christian-dominated Bible Belt
area, little use is made of this due to severe pressure from conservative Christians claiming Sunday as a day for worship only. The law provides for touristic municipalities (including major cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague) to allow shops to open on Sundays year-round. The law at first did not include a definition of what constituted "touristic", resulting in what Christian and socialist political parties called "misuse of the tourism provision": non-touristic municipalities branding themselves "touristic" in order to allow year-round Sunday shopping. In November 2010 the upper house of parliament voted in favour of legislation defining conditions under which communities can call themselves "touristic".
A Sunday on which shops are opened is known as a koopzondag in Dutch
, literally "buying Sunday".
, which banned trading on Saturday and Sunday completely between 1945 and 1980, liberalised shopping hours in 1990. Shops may open at any time, with the exception of all day Good Friday
, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Day, and before 1:00pm on ANZAC Day
. Certain types of shops, such as petrol stations and dairies, are specifically excluded from this restriction and are still allowed to trade on these days. However, outside the main cities, shops still close for the weekend on Saturday afternoons.
only gas stations, flower nurseries and food shops that are smaller than 100 m2 (square metres) are allowed to operate on Sundays. For special occasions such as Christmas shopping there are exceptions.
may establish its own Sunday opening calendar. The general trend is to allow Sunday opening once a month (usually the first Sunday) and every Sunday during special shopping seasons (including Christmas and sales). Certain sectors (including bars, restaurants, bakeries, pharmacies, fairly big convenience stores, small family-run stores, and bookshops) are granted an exception and may open every Sunday with no restrictions. It's not hard to find a small grocery store open on Sunday on any Spanish town as of 2011.
Religious concerns have been notably absent from the debate. The main bone of contention lies in the competition between big department stores, supermarkets and shopping centers, who push for complete liberalisation, and small family-run shops, who cannot afford extra staff to open on Sundays.
Shops on towns and areas declared as touristic are allowed to open every Sunday. The list as of 2011 is quite extensive as it includes downtown Madrid, most of the Catalan coast area (except Barcelona), most of Murcia coast towns area, as well as many municipalities on the Madrid metropolitan area, Andalusia coast area and Valencia coast area. Shopping malls and hypermarkets on that areas usually stay open every Sunday.
, which is not allowed to open on Sundays, and have to close at 8pm on weekdays and 3pm on Saturdays.
Pursuant to an ordinance of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs
, the following train stations and airports are allowed to include shops that are open on Sundays: Aarau
, Baden
, Basel SBB, Bellinzona
, Bern, Biel, Brig
, Chur
, Frauenfeld
, Fribourg
, Geneva
, Lausanne
, Lugano
, Lucerne
, Neuchâtel, Olten
, Schaffhausen
, Solothurn
, St. Gallen
, Thun
, Uster
, Visp
, Wil
, Winterthur
, Zug
, Zürich Enge, Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Zürich Oerlikon, Zürich Stadelhofen; Bern Airport
, Geneva Cointrin International Airport
, Lugano Airport
, Sion
Airfield, St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport
, Zürich Airport.
was not generally permitted until 1994. This meant that shops such as department store
s and supermarket
s were not able to open legally. A number of specialist outlets were able to open legally, including garden centre
s, small "corner" or family-run shops, and chemists.
An earlier attempt by Margaret Thatcher
's government to allow Sunday shopping in 1986 was defeated in Parliament
, with opposition coming from Conservative
MPs who saw it as a threat to family life and church attendance, and Labour
MPs who were concerned about workers' rights. This led to the formation of the Keep Sunday Special
campaign, backed by church groups and USDAW, the trade union
representing shop workers.
Several large retailers challenged the legal ruling in force before 1994 by opening on Sundays (or simply ignored them, since the fines were far lower than their Sunday profits), and the outcome was that the Sunday Trading Act 1994
permitted large shops (those with a relevant floor area in excess of 280 square metres) to open for up to six hours on Sunday between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm. Small shops, those with an area of below 280 square metres, are free to set their own Sunday trading times.
However, some large shops, such as off-licenses, service stations and garages, are exempt from the restrictions. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday have been excluded as trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter. In 2006, the government considered further relaxation of the permitted hours of business but decided that there was no consensus for change, although a popular poll indicated differently. Some local councils require official permission before allowing a store to open on Sundays.
Since the 1994 Act allowed stores to open, stores seem to keep to it meticulously, perhaps more so than before when they were flagrantly breaching the law by opening at all. However, there is a tendency to open half an hour earlier but not allow sales before the allotted time, to allow people to "browse" and thus effectively extend the opening hours of the store without breaking the law. For example in Birmingham in 2005 several stores opened seven hours, 10.30am-5.30pm, but would not have been able to sell throughout that time without breaking the law.
are devolved to the Scottish Parliament
.
Scotland has never had any general legislation regarding Sunday trading. However, the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003
prohibits shops from compelling their workers to work on Sunday. This lack of restriction allows opening hours of larger shops to be longer than in England and Wales, and many large supermarkets remain open seven days a week with little or no adjustment of opening hours at the weekend. There is no equivalent to the legal restriction on Easter Sunday opening that exists in England and Wales, but opening on Christmas Day is very unusual.
Actual practice varies across the country according to local custom and local council regulation. In the Western Isles, where the Free Church of Scotland
has a considerable following, there has been virtually no commercial activity on Sundays until recently. In most places the majority of shops which do not sell groceries or newspapers do not as a matter of course open on Sunday; in tourist and holiday areas there is typically an increase in the number of shops opening late and on Sundays during their particular tourist seasons.
Former restrictions include:
, Sunday shopping is regulated under the Sunday Trading (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. Opening hours are more limited, usually between 1pm and 6pm. This was to create a greater gap between Sunday services and the opening of large shops, in response to objections from churches, which have more influence than in the rest of the UK. Pubs were not allowed to open on Sunday in Northern Ireland until 1989. These laws make Belfast one of the few capital cities in Europe to have absolutely no 24 hour shops in its city centre.
.
One of the last major areas to completely prohibit Sunday shopping is Bergen County, New Jersey
. This area contains one of the largest and most popular commercial shopping cores of the New York metropolitan area
(for example, one of four local IKEA
stores is found here, the store is the only one in the United States to be closed on Sunday, and is also home to four large shopping malls). Ironically, the area is not considered to be particularly very religious compared to the U.S. population at large, and it also has significant Jewish
and Muslim
populations whose observant members would not be celebrating the Sabbath on Sunday. Attempts to repeal the law have failed as many locals either like to keep the law on the books as a protest against the growing trend of increased Sunday shopping activity in American society or fear the potential increase of Sunday traffic on major local roads such as Route 4 or Route 17. Some local Orthodox Jews
who are off both days of the weekend have complained about the law because it limits their ability to get shopping done on the weekend without having to travel to a neighboring county as religious beliefs prohibit shopping on Friday night or on Saturday before sunset
, which in the summer can be right before most department stores and malls close.
Three states (Connecticut
, Indiana
and Georgia
) still prohibit retail alcohol sales in stores on Sundays in a measure which has ties to blue laws
. The rest of the United States have repealed such laws. In those three states, however, alcohol can still be served in restaurants and bars on Sunday at the discretion of a county or city along with local ordinances to abide by. For instance in Georgia, most of the Metro Atlanta
area counties serve alcohol at restaurants and bars, but the establishments must have a certain amount of food sales in order to be opened and serve alcohol on Sundays. Yet many of Georgia's rural counties and some outer metro Atlanta counties such as Barrow County
remain completely dry on Sundays. In those counties on Sundays, bars are closed, and restaurants are allowed to operate but are prohibited from serving alcohol. There was discussion in the Georgia legislature in the late 2000s to repeal the state's blue laws regarding Sunday retail alcohol sales in a measure to increase tax revenue. However then-Governor Sonny Perdue
said that he would not sign the bills repealing the laws if they passed in Georgia's state house and senate. Some states also prohibit car dealerships from selling vehicles on Sunday.
Against
For
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
tradition typically recognizes as the Sabbath, a "day of rest". Rules governing shopping hours
Shopping hours
Customs and regulations for shopping hours vary from country to country.-Shopping days and impact of holidays:Some countries do not allow Sunday shopping. In Islamic countries some shops are closed on Fridays during noon...
, such as Sunday shopping, vary around the world but some Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an nations continue to ban Sunday shopping. Sabbatarian Christians who observe Saturday as the Sabbath oppose such laws.
Australia
The situation in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
is not uniform, as each of its States and Territories
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...
has its own different laws. Historically, shops closed for the weekend on Saturday afternoons, with South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
being the first state to allow Saturday afternoon opening. Most states now allow Sunday opening, with unregulated trading in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Certain shops are generally made exempt, or partially exempt, from trading hours laws (including restrictions on Sunday trading) under certain conditions. Shops that are not exempt from trading hours restrictions are referred to as "general" or "non-exempt" shops. Although these vary from state to state, generally speaking, exemptions can be based on one or more of the following:
- a maximum number of employees employed by the shop, or staffed at any one time (for example, New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
exempts shops with no more than four staff at any one time), - by the floor size of the shop (for example, South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
exempts shops with a floor space of less than 200m2Square metreThe square metre or square meter is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m2 . It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre...
), - by the type of goods the shop sells - for example, hardware and furniture shops are often partially exempted, while shops such as newsagents, flowers, certain food shops (other than supermarketSupermarketA supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s) and chemists are often fully exempt, or - by its location, often in significant tourist areas - either by inclusion, or by exclusion - i.e. declaring that trading hours outside of designated areas are deregulated.
New South Wales
Trading hours in New South Wales are largely deregulated following the enactment of the Shop Trading Act 2008, which commenced operation on 1 July 2008.Under the current act, Sunday trading is unrestricted; however, shops must close on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and until 1:00 p.m. on ANZAC Day, unless exempted. Exemptions are granted generally by virtue of small size, location, types of goods traded; other shops must apply for an exemption to trade on a restricted day through the Department of Industrial Relations.
Prior to these laws, shops not generally exempted were required to apply to trade on Sunday and other public holidays, to be granted if the shop was "serving predominantly the tourist or visitor trade, significant public demand or operates in a holiday resort area". In practice however, Sunday trading remained commonplace.
Victoria
Trading hours are deregulated in VictoriaVictoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
; shopping is allowed at any time, except for Anzac Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
morning (before 1 p.m.), Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
and Christmas Day. Victoria is also famous for first introducing round the clock 36 hour shopping before Christmas, even if this fell on a Sunday. In Victoria Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
is also one of the busiest days of the shopping year, and many stores are opened extended hours even if it falls on a Sunday. Victoria is one of only a select number of states which feature 24hr Kmart stores, open every day of the year except for Christmas Day.
Queensland
Non-exempt shops in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
are permitted to trade from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in certain coastal towns north of Brisbane. Permission for regional cities to trade on Sundays is made by the local council that governs it.
South Australia
South AustraliaSouth Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
introduced Sunday trading for non-exempt shops in 2003. Non-exempt shops are restricted to opening between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in the Adelaide metropolitan area. Trading hours are also restricted in a number of "Proclaimed Shopping Districts" in country South Australia, where non-exempt shops must remain closed on Sunday. Local governments can apply to have their Proclaimed Shopping District altered or abolished.
Western Australia
Trading hours in the PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
metropolitan area - and generally, south of the 26° South line of latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
- are regulated through the Retail Trading Hours Act 1987. Unless exempted, general retail shops in the Perth area must remain closed on a Sunday or public holiday.
Exemptions to allow continuous Sunday trading in the Perth area began in 1996, which permitted general shops in the central precincts of Perth
Perth, Western Australia (suburb)
Perth is a locality covering the central inner-city area and central business district of the Perth, Western Australia metropolitan region. Perth is split between the City of Perth and the City of Vincent local authorities. Perth was named after Perth, Scotland.-Built environment:The dominant land...
city and Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
to trade between noon and 6 p.m. Further legislation in 2006 identified prescribed areas of Rockingham
Rockingham, Western Australia
Rockingham is a suburb and primary centre in Western Australia south-west of the Perth city centre and south of Fremantle. It has a beachside location at Mangles Bay, the southern extremity of Cockburn Sound. To its north stretches the maritime and resource-industry installations of Kwinana and...
, Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is long, and at its widest point with a total land area of . It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the...
and Wanneroo
Wanneroo
Wanneroo may refer to:* City of Wanneroo - a local government area in the north of Perth, Western Australia* Wanneroo - a suburb in that local government area* Wanneroo Road - an arterial road north of Perth...
as "holiday resorts" to be treated as tourism precincts for exemption. In 2007, the Perth Sunday trading precinct was enlarged to take in adjoining suburbs such as Victoria Park
Victoria Park, Western Australia
The Town of Victoria Park is a Local Government Area of Western Australia. It covers an area of 17.62 km² in metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The Town of Victoria Park maintains 154.55 km of roads, a little over 1 km² of parks and gardens and has a...
, Leederville
Leederville, Western Australia
Leederville is a locality within the City of Vincent within the Perth metropolitan region of Western Australia.It is home to Aranmore Catholic College, The Schools of Isolated and Distance Education, Central Institute of Technology Leederville Campus and St Mary's Church.-External...
, Subiaco
Subiaco, Western Australia
Subiaco is an inner western suburb of Perth, Western Australia, situated to the north west of Kings Park. Its Local Government Area is the City of Subiaco.-History:Prior to European settlement the area was home to the Noongar Indigenous people....
and South Perth
South Perth, Western Australia
South Perth is a residential suburb 3 kilometres south of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, which adjoins the southern shore of Perth Water on the Swan River...
. On 8 July 2010, Sunday trading was extended to Joondalup
Joondalup, Western Australia
Joondalup is a regional metropolitan city within Perth, Western Australia, approximately north of Perth's central business district.It acts as the primary urban centre in Perth's outer northern suburbs.-History:...
, and on 1 November, to Armadale
Armadale, Western Australia
Armadale is a suburb within the City of Armadale, located on the south-eastern edge of Perth's metropolitan area. The major junction of the South Western and Albany Highways, which connect Perth with the South West and Great Southern regions of Western Australia respectively, is located within the...
and Midland
Midland, Western Australia
Midland is a suburb in the Perth, Western Australia metropolitan area, as well as the regional centre for the City of Swan local government area that covers the Swan Valley and parts of the Darling Scarp to the east. It is situated at the intersection of Great Eastern Highway and Great Northern...
.
As of 2010, trading in these "Special Trading Precincts" is allowed on a Sunday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., and on a public holiday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. General shops must remain closed on Christmas Day, Good Friday and the whole of ANZAC Day, or as otherwise directed (for instance, New Year's Day 2011). Outside the Perth metropolitan area, general shops are closed by default, but councils are permitted to make an application for Sunday trading on behalf of their local government area.
Exemptions also apply to small shops (permitted to open 24 hours), filling station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
s (24 hours, but restricted in types of goods after non-exempt trading hours), and to so-called "special retail shops" which are "considered necessary for emergency, convenience or recreation goods" (until 11:30 p.m.). In late 2010, the Barnett
Colin Barnett
Colin James Barnett , Australian politician, is the leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party, the 29th and current Premier of Western Australia since the 2008 election and served as the Treasurer of Western Australia in 2010. He was sworn into office by Governor Ken Michael on 23 September 2008...
-led state government sought discussion on extending an exemption to permit retailers of "'whitegoods' and certain other 'bulky' or 'consumer durable' goods" to trade on Sundays.
In 2005, Western Australian voters were asked to vote in a referendum on extended trading hours on week-nights and Sundays
Western Australian retail trading hours referendum, 2005
The 2005 Western Australian retail trading hours referendum was held in Western Australia on 20 February 2005. The referendum failed, with a majority voting against both extended weeknight retail trading and Sunday retail trading.-Questions:Question 1...
, coinciding with the state election of that year
Western Australian state election, 2005
Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 26 February 2005 to elect all 57 members to the Legislative Assembly and all 34 members to the Legislative Council...
. Both questions—which proposed trading until 9:00 p.m. on week-nights, along with six hours of trading on Sunday—were firmly rejected, with only 38.6% of those voting in the referendum supporting the Sunday trading proposal.
Tasmania
Trading hours in TasmaniaTasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
have been deregulated since December 1, 2002, with shops only being required to close on Christmas Day, Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
, and ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
morning. Previously, businesses with more than 250 employees were not permitted to trade on Sundays. This restriction can be gazetted by the relevant minister for these shops, but only on the advice of a local council, and only after a referendum of voters in that local government area is carried.
Australian Capital Territory
Trading hours in the Australian Capital TerritoryAustralian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
(ACT) have been deregulated since the repeal of the Trading Hours Act 1996 on 29 May 1997. The 1996 act restricted trading of "large supermarkets" to between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sundays, provided other trading hours were not gazetted by the relevant minister. Large supermarkets were those with greater than 400m2
Square metre
The square metre or square meter is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m2 . It is defined as the area of a square whose sides measure exactly one metre...
in floor area, and located in the City or the Belconnen
Belconnen Town Centre
Belconnen Town Centre is located in the suburb of Belconnen on the south-western shore of Lake Ginninderra in Canberra, Australia. It is the town centre for the Belconnen district....
, Woden
Woden Town Centre
Woden Town Centre is the main commercial centre of the district of Woden Valley in Canberra, Australia. It is located in the Canberra suburb of Phillip....
and Tuggeranong
Tuggeranong Town Centre
Tuggeranong Town Centre services the southernmost Canberra district of Tuggeranong. It is located on the south-western side of Lake Tuggeranong and composed of a large three-storey mall, the Tuggeranong Hyperdome, as well as a smaller shopping complex, the Homeworld, and many other buildings and...
Town Centres.
Belgium
Shops in BelgiumBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
may open on Sunday afternoons. In March
March
March is in present time held to be the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is one of the seven months which are 31 days long....
2006 the number of Sunday opening days increased from three to up to nine. Six of these are determined by the federal government and three may be determined by municipalities. In addition the criteria which a municipality must meet to be recognised as a "tourist centres" were relaxed.
There are also arrangements for food stores to open on Sunday and wider arrangements for Sunday opening of certain sectors such as furniture and do-it-yourself stores and garden centres.
Canada
In 1982, the Supreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
upheld the Lord's Day Act. However, at that time, only the Canadian Bill of Rights
Canadian Bill of Rights
The Canadian Bill of Rights is a federal statute and bill of rights enacted by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's government on August 10, 1960. It provides Canadians with certain quasi-constitutional rights in relation to other federal statutes...
existed. That document only protected existing Canadian rights. As a result, the Court noted that Canada was an overwhelmingly Christian country that had accepted Sunday closing laws for years. The Court determined that the Lord's Day Act did not force people to practice Christianity or stop practicing their own religion.
However, later that year, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
was introduced, ensuring freedom of conscience and religion, regardless of existing federal or provincial laws. On April 24, 1985 - the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Lord's Day Act violated Canadians' freedom of religion. The 1985 ruling examined the original purpose of the act. It found that the Christian value of keeping the Sabbath holy had been incorporated into a law that affected all Canadians, Christian or not. This law—the Lord's Day Act—prevented non-Christians from performing otherwise legal activities on Sundays. This was inconsistent with the Canadian charter.
Nova Scotia
Until October 4, 2006, Nova ScotiaNova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
was the only province in Canada that prohibited year-round Sunday shopping. An experiment with the practice was held in 2003 and in 2004 a binding plebiscite was held which resulted in 45% of voters in favour of Sunday shopping and 55% voting against the practice. The Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act allowed some stores, such as video rental outlets, pharmacies and book stores, to open on Sundays, but department stores had to remain closed. The restrictions were based on the area of a store and its form of business.
By mid-2006, several grocers in Nova Scotia including Pete's Frootique
Pete Luckett
Pete Luckett is an entrepreneur and media personality who is known as a culinary fruit and vegetable expert.Originally a native of Nottingham, England, Luckett emigrated to Canada in 1979, settling in Saint John, New Brunswick...
and larger chains such as Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore is a Canadian supermarket chain of 54 stores in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island...
and Sobeys
Sobeys
Sobeys is the second largest food retailer in Canada, with over 1,300 supermarkets operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than $14 billion CAD in 2009...
circumvented the law by reconfiguring their stores on Sundays into separate businesses, each of which was small enough in area to be exempt from the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act. For example, a Halifax-area Sobeys location was known as the "Sobeys Queen Street Mall" and housed the Sobeys Retail Fish Store Ltd., Sobeys Fruit Stand Ltd., Sobeys Bakery and Bulk Food Ltd. and eight other separate "businesses".
On June 23, 2006, the Premier of Nova Scotia
Premier of Nova Scotia
The Premier of Nova Scotia is the first minister for the Canadian province of Nova Scotia who presides over the Executive Council of Nova Scotia. Following the Westminster system, the premier is normally the leader of the political party which has the most seats in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly...
, Rodney MacDonald
Rodney MacDonald
Rodney Joseph MacDonald is a Canadian politician, educator and musician who served as the 26th Premier of Nova Scotia from 2006 to 2009 and as MLA for the riding of Inverness in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1999 to 2009....
, announced new limits on Sunday shopping as a means to honour the wishes of voters in the 2004 plebiscite. The proposed new regulations prohibited grocers and other retailers from opening if they reconfigured their businesses as separate operating units after June 1, 2006. The premier also announced that he would seek the views of the public in a new plebiscite to coincide with municipal elections scheduled for 2008.
On July 2, 2006 members of the Halifax Regional Police
Halifax Regional Police
The Halifax Regional Police is one of a number of law enforcement agencies operating in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia; the other primaries being the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Forces Military Police...
entered the Barrington Street Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore is a Canadian supermarket chain of 54 stores in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island...
in Halifax with measuring tapes and began an investigation to see if the grocer was in compliance with the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act. Three days later, on July 5, 2006, Sobeys
Sobeys
Sobeys is the second largest food retailer in Canada, with over 1,300 supermarkets operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than $14 billion CAD in 2009...
filed a motion in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to have the Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act and the new regulations announced by Premier MacDonald to be declared invalid. Sobeys was joined by Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore
Atlantic Superstore is a Canadian supermarket chain of 54 stores in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island...
in the case, who entered by seeking intervener status.
Sobeys
Sobeys
Sobeys is the second largest food retailer in Canada, with over 1,300 supermarkets operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than $14 billion CAD in 2009...
felt that the law was unjust since it permitted competitors such as Pete's Frootique
Pete Luckett
Pete Luckett is an entrepreneur and media personality who is known as a culinary fruit and vegetable expert.Originally a native of Nottingham, England, Luckett emigrated to Canada in 1979, settling in Saint John, New Brunswick...
in Bedford to open Sundays. Pete's Frootique had taken the provincial government to court seven years earlier and won the right to open on Sundays with its separate operating divisions, thus it was "grandfathered" in the new regulations announced by Premier MacDonald.
On October 4, 2006, the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ruled that the Government of Nova Scotia had over-stepped its authority by forcing the supermarkets to close. In response, Premier Rodney MacDonald announced that effective Sunday, October 8, Sunday shopping would be an unrestricted option open to all retail stores, and can be open on all holidays except Remembrance Day, for which there was a separate provincial law forcing all businesses to close. Since then, Sunday shopping has been adopted throughout the province.
Ontario
After the demise of the Lord's Day Act, the Retail Business Holidays Act of Ontario still prohibited most stores from opening on Sundays. However, there were many exceptions to these rules (for example, gas stations, convenience stores, tourist areas). Many store owners who opposed the law decided to open their stores on Sundays, knowing they were breaking the law.In June 1990, the Supreme Court of Ontario found the act to be unconstitutional. As a result, Ontario had nine months of open-wide Sunday shopping, until the Ontario Court of Appeal
Ontario Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal for Ontario is headquartered in downtown Toronto, in historic Osgoode Hall....
's reversal of the decision in March 1991.
However, public opposition to Sunday closing continued to rise. Bowing to public pressure, the Rae government amended the Retail Business Holidays Act in June 1992 to permit Sunday shopping in Ontario.
Other Canadian Provinces
Several other provinces have restrictions of some degree on Sunday shopping.In Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
, it is only permitted after 12 noon from the Sunday before Victoria Day until Christmas Eve. This was repealed on November 25, 2010, allowing stores to open at any time on Sunday year-round.
In Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
it requires municipal approval and it is only permitted from 12PM to 6PM each Sunday.
In New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
the decisions require dual approval from municipal and provincial officials (although that is in the process of being changed), otherwise it is only permitted from August to the First Sunday in January. Some cities (such as Saint John
Saint John, New Brunswick
City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...
and Fredericton) restrict Sunday hours to 12PM to 5PM.
In British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, most liquor stores are closed on Sundays.
In the 1990s, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
allowed wide-open shopping from 8AM until 5PM; some stores (mainly supermarkets) could remain open later than 5PM, but they could not have more than four employees on staff after 5PM. The law was changed in the 2000s to allow supermarkets to remain open until 8PM with an unlimited number of employees.
Other provinces allow wide-open shopping all day on most Sundays (except when it falls on a holiday or when objected by municipalities).
Croatia
The Roman Catholic Church and some other minor organizations tried to influence the CroatiaCroatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n Government in order for Sunday shopping to be banned. Although it had worked for some time, the Croatian Constitutional Court declared banning Sunday shopping to be unconstitutional, and on April 28, 2004 issued a decision making it legal. The Church admitted defeat in the battle over closing shops on Sundays. However, on July 15, 2008, the Parliament of Croatia
Parliament of Croatia
The Parliament of Croatia or the Sabor is the unicameral representative body of the citizens of the Republic of Croatia and legislature of the country. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, represents the people and is vested with the legislative power...
, again under pressure from the Catholic Church, passed a new-old law banning Sunday shopping effective January 1, 2009. However, this new ban was also declared to be unconstitutional by the Croatian Constitutional Court on July 19, 2009 http://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/ustavni-sud-ponistio-odluku-o-zabrani-rada-nedjeljom.html and the Catholic Church admitted defeat once again http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/29063/crkva-je-priznala-poraz-u-borbi-za-neradnu-nedjelju.
European Union
A Conference on Sunday protection at European level was held in March 2010 in the European Parliament in Brussels. It was organised by the MEPs Thomas Mann (EPP, Germany) and Patrizia Toia (S&D, Italy) together with the Konrad Adenauer FoundationKonrad Adenauer Foundation
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a German political party foundation associated with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union . The foundation's headquarters are located in Saint Augustine and Berlin. Globally, the KAS has 78 offices and runs programs in over 100 countries...
. Several European trade unions, civil society organisations and churches attended the conference. László Andor
László Andor
László Andor is a Hungarian economist. He is Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion in the Barroso II administration of the European Commission...
, the EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, responsible for a new draft of the Working Time Directive
Working Time Directive
The Working Time Directive is a European Union Directive, which creates the right for EU workers to a minimum number of holidays each year, paid breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours; restricts excessive night work; and makes a default right to work no more than 48 hours per week....
, addressed the conference.
The following European Union countries currently allow shops to open every Sunday: Sweden, Finland, UK, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, Bulgaria and Hungary.
The following European Union countries currently allow shops to open every Sunday on tourist declared towns and cities and currently have a very extensive list of them that includes capitals and major cities: Spain, France, Netherlands and Italy (country on which restrictions remain only at certain non touristic areas of the north).
Finland
, opening hours, including Sunday shopping, for stores with a commercial floor area of less than 400 m2 are unregulated. The current lawhttp://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2009/20090945 permits even the largest retailing venues to stay open on Sundays from 12 pm to 6 pm (12:00 - 18:00), and during the ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
shopping season beginning on the third Sunday of November and ending on December 23, to 9 pm (21:00). Sunday shopping was introduced in 1994.
France
France laws about Sunday shopping are complex. Although Sunday shopping is generally not allowed, there are many exceptions such as certain zones and municipalities of the metropolitan areas of Paris, Marseille, and Lille; as well as around 500 cities that were declared as tourist towns, including major cities such as Nice, Le Havre, Bordeaux, etc. Most major stores nationwide open every December Sunday prior to Christmas. Supermarkets (but not Hypermarkets) are allowed to open nationwide every Sunday morning until 13:00 for grocery shopping. The 2009 relaxation allowed all stores to open in tourist areas (before, only sports, toys and cultural shops were allowed). The most visible result is that now clothing stores open every Sunday on places such as Champs Elysees in Paris, La Défense, and downtown Nice.In 2008, the furniture chain IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
was fined €450,000 (over $700,000) for trading on Sundays under the law of 1906. With the current law, IKEA stores are allowed to open every Sunday. However only the ones on the Paris metropolitan area actually do so.
Germany
In GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, opening hours have long been restricted through the Ladenschlussgesetz
Ladenschlussgesetz
In the Federal Republic of Germany, the Ladenschlussgesetz or "Shop Closing Law" is the federal law regulating at which times retail stores were required to be closed to the public...
. The 1956 law required shops to close for the weekend at 2 p.m. on a Saturday and 6:30 p.m. on week-nights, with opening until 6 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month, in what was known as the Langer Samstag, or "long Saturday". The law was changed, in the face of strong resistance from labour unions, to allow langer Donnerstag ("long Thursday") until 8:30 p.m. in 1988, and in 1996 opening times were extended to 8 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday; this was extended to 8 p.m. on Saturday in 2004.
In 2004, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled against lifting restrictions on Sunday opening, which is still confined to some small bakeries and convenience stores inside railway stations and airports. However, in 2006, the responsibility for opening hours was transferred to the state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
governments instead of the federal government, leading to an end to regulated Monday-Saturday opening hours in several states, such as Berlin. However, there is still strong resistance to Sunday shopping from churches and politicians. The leadership of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has expressed an interest in allowing Sunday shopping.
Hong Kong
While Sunday is a holiday or day of rest, shopping hours are not regulated and decided wholly by store owners.Most of the shops open on Sunday from 10-11am to 10-11pm.
Republic of Ireland
There has been no recent legislation regarding Sunday trading in the Republic of IrelandRepublic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, which is regulated by the Shops (Hours of Trading) Act, 1938. However, the act itself is largely inoperative, and as a result most shops and businesses may open whenever they please, including on Sundays and public holidays.
Major retail chains (such as supermarkets, department stores, stores that specialise in DIY, household goods, clothing, etc.) and many independent retailers open their branches throughout Ireland on Sundays usually from 10:00 to 19:00 in the larger towns and cities and from 12:00 to 18:00 in the smaller centres. In Dublin, almost all shops are open on a Sunday.
Supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations are open longer hours than other shops on Sundays, typically from early morning (06:00-10:00) to late evening (20:00-00:00).
Some supermarkets, such as Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
, are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
. Many smaller shops, most petrol stations, some food service outlets, and other retailers, such as pharmacies, are also open permanently - particularly in Dublin.
Netherlands
In the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, all communities are (in principle) allowed to open shops for twelve Sundays a year. However, in the Christian-dominated Bible Belt
Bible Belt (Netherlands)
The Bible Belt is the name given to a strip of land in the Netherlands, which is inhabited chiefly by conservative Protestants...
area, little use is made of this due to severe pressure from conservative Christians claiming Sunday as a day for worship only. The law provides for touristic municipalities (including major cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague) to allow shops to open on Sundays year-round. The law at first did not include a definition of what constituted "touristic", resulting in what Christian and socialist political parties called "misuse of the tourism provision": non-touristic municipalities branding themselves "touristic" in order to allow year-round Sunday shopping. In November 2010 the upper house of parliament voted in favour of legislation defining conditions under which communities can call themselves "touristic".
A Sunday on which shops are opened is known as a koopzondag in Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, literally "buying Sunday".
New Zealand
New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, which banned trading on Saturday and Sunday completely between 1945 and 1980, liberalised shopping hours in 1990. Shops may open at any time, with the exception of all day Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Day, and before 1:00pm on ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
. Certain types of shops, such as petrol stations and dairies, are specifically excluded from this restriction and are still allowed to trade on these days. However, outside the main cities, shops still close for the weekend on Saturday afternoons.
Norway
In NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
only gas stations, flower nurseries and food shops that are smaller than 100 m2 (square metres) are allowed to operate on Sundays. For special occasions such as Christmas shopping there are exceptions.
Spain
Commercial liberalisation during the 80's allowed Sunday shopping with no restrictions. However, due to pressure from the small independent shops, certain restrictions were introduced in the 90's. Currently, each autonomous communityAutonomous communities of Spain
An autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...
may establish its own Sunday opening calendar. The general trend is to allow Sunday opening once a month (usually the first Sunday) and every Sunday during special shopping seasons (including Christmas and sales). Certain sectors (including bars, restaurants, bakeries, pharmacies, fairly big convenience stores, small family-run stores, and bookshops) are granted an exception and may open every Sunday with no restrictions. It's not hard to find a small grocery store open on Sunday on any Spanish town as of 2011.
Religious concerns have been notably absent from the debate. The main bone of contention lies in the competition between big department stores, supermarkets and shopping centers, who push for complete liberalisation, and small family-run shops, who cannot afford extra staff to open on Sundays.
Shops on towns and areas declared as touristic are allowed to open every Sunday. The list as of 2011 is quite extensive as it includes downtown Madrid, most of the Catalan coast area (except Barcelona), most of Murcia coast towns area, as well as many municipalities on the Madrid metropolitan area, Andalusia coast area and Valencia coast area. Shopping malls and hypermarkets on that areas usually stay open every Sunday.
Sweden
There is no law restricting the opening hours of shops. The only exception to this rule is the government-owned liquor store monopoly SystembolagetSystembolaget
Systembolaget is a government owned chain of liquor stores in Sweden. It is the only retail store allowed to sell alcoholic beverages that contain more than 3.5% alcohol. Systembolaget also sells non-alcoholic beverages. To buy alcoholic beverages at Systembolaget one has to be 20 years of age or...
, which is not allowed to open on Sundays, and have to close at 8pm on weekdays and 3pm on Saturdays.
Switzerland
Federal labour law in Switzerland generally prohibits the employment of staff on Sundays. The law provides for exceptions for very small shops, shops in certain tourist areas as well as shops in major train stations and airports. The latter provision was adopted in a 2005 popular referendum in which it was opposed by labor unions and conservative Christian groups. Moreover, the cantons may allow shops to open on up to four Sundays a year.Pursuant to an ordinance of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs
Federal Department of Economic Affairs
The Federal Department of Economic Affairs is one of the seven departments of the federal government of Switzerland, headed by a member of the Swiss Federal Council.-Organisation:The Department is composed of the following offices:...
, the following train stations and airports are allowed to include shops that are open on Sundays: Aarau
Aarau
Aarau is the capital of the northern Swiss canton of Aargau. The city is also the capital of the district of Aarau. It is German-speaking and predominantly Protestant. Aarau is situated on the Swiss plateau, in the valley of the Aar, on the river's right bank, and at the southern foot of the Jura...
, Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
, Basel SBB, Bellinzona
Bellinzona
Bellinzona is the administrative capital of the canton Ticino in Switzerland. The city is famous for its three castles that have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2000....
, Bern, Biel, Brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
, Chur
Chur
Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
, Frauenfeld
Frauenfeld
Frauenfeld is the capital of the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-Early history:The earliest trace of human settlement are several La Tène era graves to the east of Langdorf. The Roman road from Oberwinterthur to Pfyn ran through what is now the Allmend in Frauenfeld. Two Roman villas were...
, Fribourg
Fribourg
Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
, Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
, Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
, Neuchâtel, Olten
Olten
Olten is a town in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and capital of the district of the same name.Olten's railway station is within 30 minutes of Zurich, Bern, Basel, and Lucerne by train, and is a rail hub of Switzerland.-History:...
, Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen is a city in northern Switzerland and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 34,587 ....
, Solothurn
Solothurn
The city of Solothurn is the capital of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The city also comprises the only municipality of the district of the same name.-Pre-roman settlement:...
, St. Gallen
St. Gallen
St. Gallen is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It evolved from the hermitage of Saint Gall, founded in the 7th century. Today, it is a large urban agglomeration and represents the center of eastern Switzerland. The town mainly relies on the service sector for its economic...
, Thun
Thun
Thun is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland with about 42,136 inhabitants , as of 1 January 2006....
, Uster
Uster
Uster is a city and capital of the district Uster in the Swiss Canton of Zürich.It is the third largest city in the Canton of Zürich, with over 30,000 inhabitants, and is one of the twenty largest cities in Switzerland...
, Visp
Visp
Visp is the capital of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-Geography:Visp has an area, , of . Of this area, 17.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 59.7% is forested...
, Wil
Wil
Wil is the capital of the Wahlkreis of Wil in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.Wil is the third largest city in the Canton of St. Gallen, after the city of St...
, Winterthur
Winterthur
Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...
, Zug
Zug
Zug , is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. The name ‘Zug’ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to ‘pull up’ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish.The city of Zug is located in the Canton of Zug and is its capital...
, Zürich Enge, Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Zürich Oerlikon, Zürich Stadelhofen; Bern Airport
Bern Airport
Bern-Belp Airport is an airport serving Bern in Switzerland. The airport is within the town limits of Belp, and it is often known simply as Belp Airport....
, Geneva Cointrin International Airport
Geneva Cointrin International Airport
Geneva International Airport , commonly known as Cointrin Airport, is an airport serving Geneva, Switzerland. It is located northwest of the city centre and has direct connections to motorways, bus lines and railways . Its northern limit runs along the Swiss-French border and the airport can be...
, Lugano Airport
Lugano Airport
Lugano Airport is a regional airport located west of Lugano, Switzerland. It lies closer to the nearby village of Agno than to Lugano itself, and so is usually known as Lugano-Agno....
, Sion
Sion, Switzerland
Sion is the capital of the Swiss canton of Valais. it had a population of .Landmarks include the Basilique de Valère and Château de Tourbillon. Sion has an airfield for civilian and military use, which, because of its location in a valley, causes a reasonable amount of noise pollution. FC Sion...
Airfield, St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport
St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport
St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport is an airport at Altenrhein in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland .-Airlines and destinations:-External links:*http://www.peoples.ch/...
, Zürich Airport.
England and Wales
Sunday trading in England and WalesEngland and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...
was not generally permitted until 1994. This meant that shops such as department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s and supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s were not able to open legally. A number of specialist outlets were able to open legally, including garden centre
Garden centre
A garden centre is a retail firm that sells plants and products related to gardens as its primary business. It is open to the public, with facilities to care for and display plants.- UK :...
s, small "corner" or family-run shops, and chemists.
An earlier attempt by Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's government to allow Sunday shopping in 1986 was defeated in Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, with opposition coming from Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MPs who saw it as a threat to family life and church attendance, and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MPs who were concerned about workers' rights. This led to the formation of the Keep Sunday Special
Keep Sunday Special
Keep Sunday Special is a British campaign group set up in 1985 by Dr Michael Schluter CBE to oppose plans to introduce Sunday trading in England and Wales...
campaign, backed by church groups and USDAW, the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
representing shop workers.
Several large retailers challenged the legal ruling in force before 1994 by opening on Sundays (or simply ignored them, since the fines were far lower than their Sunday profits), and the outcome was that the Sunday Trading Act 1994
Sunday Trading Act 1994
The Sunday Trading Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom governing the right of shops in England and Wales to trade on a Sunday...
permitted large shops (those with a relevant floor area in excess of 280 square metres) to open for up to six hours on Sunday between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm. Small shops, those with an area of below 280 square metres, are free to set their own Sunday trading times.
However, some large shops, such as off-licenses, service stations and garages, are exempt from the restrictions. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday have been excluded as trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter. In 2006, the government considered further relaxation of the permitted hours of business but decided that there was no consensus for change, although a popular poll indicated differently. Some local councils require official permission before allowing a store to open on Sundays.
Since the 1994 Act allowed stores to open, stores seem to keep to it meticulously, perhaps more so than before when they were flagrantly breaching the law by opening at all. However, there is a tendency to open half an hour earlier but not allow sales before the allotted time, to allow people to "browse" and thus effectively extend the opening hours of the store without breaking the law. For example in Birmingham in 2005 several stores opened seven hours, 10.30am-5.30pm, but would not have been able to sell throughout that time without breaking the law.
Scotland
Sunday trading laws in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
are devolved to the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
.
Scotland has never had any general legislation regarding Sunday trading. However, the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003
Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003
The Sunday Working Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The aim of the Act was to close an anomaly in employment law in the United Kingdom, whereby shopworkers in England and Wales had the legal right to refuse to work on a Sunday, when shopworkers in Scotland did not enjoy...
prohibits shops from compelling their workers to work on Sunday. This lack of restriction allows opening hours of larger shops to be longer than in England and Wales, and many large supermarkets remain open seven days a week with little or no adjustment of opening hours at the weekend. There is no equivalent to the legal restriction on Easter Sunday opening that exists in England and Wales, but opening on Christmas Day is very unusual.
Actual practice varies across the country according to local custom and local council regulation. In the Western Isles, where the Free Church of Scotland
Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)
Free Church of Scotland is that part of the original Free Church of Scotland that remained outside of the union with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1900...
has a considerable following, there has been virtually no commercial activity on Sundays until recently. In most places the majority of shops which do not sell groceries or newspapers do not as a matter of course open on Sunday; in tourist and holiday areas there is typically an increase in the number of shops opening late and on Sundays during their particular tourist seasons.
Former restrictions include:
- Until 1994 barbers and hairdressers in Scotland were prohibited by s.67 Shops Act 1950 from carrying out their business on a Sunday.
- Until 2009 alcohol could not be sold until 12:30. This has now changed to 10:00, the same as every other day of the week.
Northern Ireland
In Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, Sunday shopping is regulated under the Sunday Trading (Northern Ireland) Order 1997. Opening hours are more limited, usually between 1pm and 6pm. This was to create a greater gap between Sunday services and the opening of large shops, in response to objections from churches, which have more influence than in the rest of the UK. Pubs were not allowed to open on Sunday in Northern Ireland until 1989. These laws make Belfast one of the few capital cities in Europe to have absolutely no 24 hour shops in its city centre.
United States
Nearly all stores in the United States have reduced hours of operation on Sundays in some form or another. A few local municipalities still prohibit Sunday shopping. Depending on local jurisdictions and ordinances, many bars and restaurants are prohibited from opening until in-between 11 AM and 1 PM in regard to selling alcohol. Most retail stores (except where prohibited) are open from 11 am - 12-noon to 5 - 7 pm on Sundays. One notable exception to the rule of reduced hours on Sundays is Walmart—almost all of its locations keep the same hours on Sunday as on other days of the week (unless restricted by local law, as in North Dakota), which in many cases is 24/724/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
.
One of the last major areas to completely prohibit Sunday shopping is Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
. This area contains one of the largest and most popular commercial shopping cores of the New York metropolitan area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
(for example, one of four local IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
stores is found here, the store is the only one in the United States to be closed on Sunday, and is also home to four large shopping malls). Ironically, the area is not considered to be particularly very religious compared to the U.S. population at large, and it also has significant Jewish
American Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
and Muslim
Islam in the United States
From the 1880s to 1914, several thousand Muslims immigrated to the United States from the Ottoman Empire, and from parts of South Asia; they did not form distinctive settlements, and probably most assimilated into the wider society....
populations whose observant members would not be celebrating the Sabbath on Sunday. Attempts to repeal the law have failed as many locals either like to keep the law on the books as a protest against the growing trend of increased Sunday shopping activity in American society or fear the potential increase of Sunday traffic on major local roads such as Route 4 or Route 17. Some local Orthodox Jews
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
who are off both days of the weekend have complained about the law because it limits their ability to get shopping done on the weekend without having to travel to a neighboring county as religious beliefs prohibit shopping on Friday night or on Saturday before sunset
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, which in the summer can be right before most department stores and malls close.
Three states (Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
) still prohibit retail alcohol sales in stores on Sundays in a measure which has ties to blue laws
Blue Laws
The Blue Laws of the Colony of Connecticut, as distinct from the generic term "blue law" that refers to any laws regulating activities on Sunday, were the initial statutes set up by the Gov. Theophilus Eaton with the assistance of the Rev. John Cotton in 1655 for the Colony of New Haven, now part...
. The rest of the United States have repealed such laws. In those three states, however, alcohol can still be served in restaurants and bars on Sunday at the discretion of a county or city along with local ordinances to abide by. For instance in Georgia, most of the Metro Atlanta
Metro Atlanta
The Atlanta metropolitan area or metro Atlanta, officially designated by the US Census Bureau as the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ninth-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States...
area counties serve alcohol at restaurants and bars, but the establishments must have a certain amount of food sales in order to be opened and serve alcohol on Sundays. Yet many of Georgia's rural counties and some outer metro Atlanta counties such as Barrow County
Bartow County, Georgia
Bartow County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 100,157. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's July 1, 2009 estimate, the county's explosive growth resulted in a population of 96,217, a 26.5% increase in less than ten years...
remain completely dry on Sundays. In those counties on Sundays, bars are closed, and restaurants are allowed to operate but are prohibited from serving alcohol. There was discussion in the Georgia legislature in the late 2000s to repeal the state's blue laws regarding Sunday retail alcohol sales in a measure to increase tax revenue. However then-Governor Sonny Perdue
Sonny Perdue
George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III, was the 81st Governor of Georgia. Upon his inauguration in January 2003, he became the first Republican governor of Georgia since Benjamin F. Conley served during Reconstruction in the 1870s....
said that he would not sign the bills repealing the laws if they passed in Georgia's state house and senate. Some states also prohibit car dealerships from selling vehicles on Sunday.
See also
- Blue lawBlue lawA blue law is a type of law, typically found in the United States and, formerly, in Canada, designed to enforce religious standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest, and a restriction on Sunday shopping...
- Chick-fil-AChick-fil-AChick-fil-A |"fillet"]]) is a quick service restaurant chain headquartered in College Park, Georgia, United States, specializing in chicken entrées and is known for promoting the company founder's claims of Christian values. Long associated with the southern United States, where it has been a...
- distinct among fast-food chains as it does not operate on Sundays. - Keep Sunday SpecialKeep Sunday SpecialKeep Sunday Special is a British campaign group set up in 1985 by Dr Michael Schluter CBE to oppose plans to introduce Sunday trading in England and Wales...
- a campaign against extended Sunday trading in England and Wales - Lord's Day Observance SocietyLord's Day Observance SocietyDay One Christian Ministries is a Christian organisation based in the United Kingdom that lobbies for no work on Sunday, the day that many Christians celebrate as the Sabbath, a day of rest — a position based on the fourth of the Ten Commandments.Originally founded in 1831 as the Lord's Day...
- Sabbath in Christianity
- Shopping hoursShopping hoursCustoms and regulations for shopping hours vary from country to country.-Shopping days and impact of holidays:Some countries do not allow Sunday shopping. In Islamic countries some shops are closed on Fridays during noon...
- Sunday Trading Act 1994Sunday Trading Act 1994The Sunday Trading Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom governing the right of shops in England and Wales to trade on a Sunday...
English & Welsh Sunday Trading Act
External links
- UK Opening Hours - a directory of UK Shopping Time
- Findur - Opening Hours for Ireland
Against
For