Sunday trading rant

[baratron]

Moan moan bloody moan moan.

It is time for the weekly cry of "Bloody Christians!". Not that I have anything against Christians really (and by some definitions am Christian myself), just that English law's stupid "compromise" on Sunday trading is ridiculous. Shops are allowed to open for 6 hours each Sunday, with the exception of Easter Day when they must remain shut, and Christmas Day if it falls on a Sunday. There may be an exception for shops in majority Jewish parts of the country, I'm not sure.

But it's just... annoying. Because I don't think shops being open on a Sunday stops people going to church, which was excuse number 1. And between unions and EU Law and the fact that many shops are actually vaguely ethical when it comes to treating their employees, fairly few(?) people are forced to work on Sundays if they don't want to, which was excuse number 2. Most shops have specific weekend workers (usually students) who work one or both of the weekend days, or people who are rostered to work Tuesday-Sunday or Thursday-Tuesday or something.

Anyway. We are out of milk (both types) and soya ice cream. Richard is out at a paintball tournament, and Tim & Peter (who usually come round on Sundays) are in Foreign Parts. I am feeling lonely and blah, but stupid Sunday trading law dictates that I have 45 minutes in which to get dressed, get out the house and get to a shop. Because stupid Sunday trading law applies to food shops as well. Convenience stores smaller than a certain size which can prove they provide a "valuable service to the community" are allowed to stay open later than the 6 hours, but what convenience store sells soy milk or soya ice cream? (Serious question, not rhetorical, as I believe I have been to almost every convenience store between here and central London looking at some point or another!).

Rant rant rant. Moan moan moan.

I haven't even got onto the reasons why I am feeling blah, but I think I've reached my quota of angst for the month and had better stop before my lj explodes ;)

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Wow! I don't think our Sunday laws were ever that strict, and they gave up on them ages ago. I now have a grocery store about two blocks away that's open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with dozens of such things all over the city.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I remember a time when it was much more strict - nothing was open on Sundays. It was a real pain in the ass - you had to get everything done on Saturday or in the evenings Mon-Fri.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Really? I thought that things like grocery stores were always allowed to be open for the regular business hours (like eight hours a day) type of thing, but I could just be not remembering. You know me and memory.

Anyway, I'm glad that that's gone by the wayside.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

At least here the shops do open on Sundays. In other parts of Europe they don't open at all, and neither do a lot of restaurants (which is a serious PITA if you're visiting and can't find anywhere to eat). But then, I think in other parts of Europe it's not that they're not allowed to open so much as that people don't want to shop on a Sunday. Different culture.

The really ridiculous thing about our law is the fact that 24 hour supermarkets all close at 10pm on Saturdays. Why 10pm? I don't know. Maybe they want to avoid the mad alcohol rush as people desperately try to get as drunk as possible before 11pm. But it's really annoying when you suddenly realise you're out of something and it's 10.30pm, and the shops aren't going to open again before 11am the next day - especially if you're in the middle of making dinner and suddenly find some vital ingredient is missing or has gone off... So yeah, our 24 hour supermarkets are open continuously from 8am on Monday to 10pm on Saturday :/

Once again, Scottish law is infinitely more sensible on this matter. Despite Scotland having a greater proportion of churchgoers than England, there's no restriction on Sunday trading hours.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Do you often run out of vital dinner ingredients at 10:30pm on Saturday? ;)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Yes! We are Not Good at eating on time. See recent lj entry (http://www.livejournal.com/users/baratron/272006.html#cutid1) where I posted at 1.38am that my dinner was ready...

Anyone who interjects at this point to say it's Not Good For You to eat dinner after 8pm (or whatever) will be slapped. While there apparently exist people who can't sleep if they have eaten too recently, I can't go to sleep if I haven't eaten recently... If I force myself to sleep while hungry (like if I'm too depressed to go downstairs to find food or if there really isn't anything), I'm in serious danger of not waking up at all. (There have been more than a few occasions where I've actually had to have someone come in and put chocolate or sugar into my mouth before I can move. No, I'm not diabetic - I get checked on a regular basis because my grandfather was severely diabetic and I have most of the symptoms. I am apparently just weird.)

[lovingboth]

Round here (and in Harrow), at least one has soya milk, but I don't know of one that does soya ice crean too.