If shops were open 24/7 they wouldn't last very long. We stay open until 8 in the week on 90% of the time the sales intake is not worth the staff costs. Its just the way it is.

Sunday opening would not necissarily force people to work on a Sunday (see my first post in this thread).
Furthermore, IIRC time off is covered by the Working Time Directive and is enshrined in European and therefore UK law.
Pretty much everyone is entitled to 24 hours a week when they do not work or 48 hours a fortnight. I really don't see that possition changing much. Unions all over the EU would do their nut for one thing plus it would be ultimately self defeating for the businesses anyway to have staff that are so drained because they never have a break.

Working time directive says you must have a certain amount of time off, but when do you get time with the family if you have to work Sat and Sun? New staff will almost always have written into their contracts that they may have to work on weekends, so with staff turnover at some point all employees will have this requirement.

worked sundays : less time at home = less home cooked food, obesity.
less family presence = youth on the street when they could be at home.

In France they started allowing some touristy areas to open sundays and now people are getting sacked because they don't want to.

Which is exactly what will happen here. Anyone who believes that employees won't be forced to work on Sundays is naïve. Saturday and Sunday are when Tesco et al rake in a small fortune, of course they'll want you to work it.

Christ, they've already gotten rid of the special pay rates for Sundays and bank holidays, what is that if not a warning sign about where things are heading?

Who has?

Tesco, Sainsbury's etc...

Nope they haven't. or to be accurate i know Sainsbury's haven't.

I worked at a supermarket before they could open on Sundays. I did get an occasional shift on Sunday though and got double pay for it. I doubt that happens now.

Sunday is double pay still - its one of my daughters standard days with Sainsburys

I used to think the "Keep Sunday Sacred" people were a bunch of raving nutters, but I now think they were onto something.

I have grown to miss the one day of the week when you couldn't actually buy anything unless you were getting the Sunday papers, petrol or were in the pub. I was quite happy knowing when the shops were open, and don't really feel my life is any better now for being able to buy a Twix at 2.30am.

Yes they have. All new employees no longer enjoy the extra pay. Your daughter must be on an older contract.

I know fine well - I had to sign a new contract when I moved store and then lost all the benefits of my old contract - including time-and-a-half on Sundays and "anti-social hours" on a Saturday after 6pm.

I think the problem with the raving nutters was their motives seemed religious and we all want freedom to choose when/how we consume. I would prefer to argue that we can still have that choice to an extent. But I can't really do that, because our whole society is based around the concept of weeks and weekends, that it's impossible to escape. The vast majority of people, it seems, work Monday through Friday and want to be able to buy things on Saturday and Sunday. Shame, coz I'm more of an individual than that, but there isn't a lot of room for individuals in this day and age.

^^ A fine example of how the big stores erode benefits. You were only switching stores ffs.

So you're an individual? do you have a family? Or because you want to be able to do what you want people who wanna spend time with their family would lose out? Imagine Mom working sunday-thursday, dad tuesday- saturday, kids at school all week... When do you spend any time as a group? Just because you want your comfort to be able to buy on a sunday if you so wish. My life is full enough that i don't need to go to shops on sundays, or at night