Sunday Shopping
I recently listened to an interesting piece on The Sunday Edition about, well, Sundays*. Michael Enright and his guests explored whether “Sundays have lost their Sundayness” — what we do with Sundays (and what we wish we did with them). It was a fascinating discussion, and one that I think a lot of people think about. Among the topics touched on was the fact that the last holdout province, Nova Scotia, did away with its ban on Sunday shopping in 2006. Was stores being closed on the “day of rest” one of the last vestiges of a simpler, more relaxing and family-oriented time? This discussion brought to mind something I’ve been meaning to write about for some time: Sunday shopping.
I might be crazy, but I think I remember my parents saying that when they lived here in the 70s, the only places open on Sundays were gas stations, but they were pretty much only allowed to sell you bread and milk (and, well, gasoline). If that’s true, then times have changed since then!
Nowadays, in Winnipeg, we have it both ways: stores are allowed to open, but only during certain hours: retail stores (which include grocery stores) are only open from 12 noon to 6pm on Sundays. There are exceptions, of course. If your store operates with fewer than four people, you are allowed to be open whenever you like on Sundays. It’s not clear to me whether smaller cities that do not have a municipal Sunday Shopping bylaw are allowed to open.
The biggest adjustment for me in this regard has been to the hours grocery stores keep on Sundays. Before moving here, I was used to stores being open whenever they pleased. I think the last Safeway I shopped at in BC was open 7am to midnight, seven days a week. This was extremely handy – you could get groceries pretty much any time it was convenient – but any time I took advantage of late-night or early-morning shopping, I felt self-conflicted. On one hand, it was like, “See, it’s a good thing you’re open! Look at all of us shopping at 8 on a Sunday night! How accommodating!” But on the other hand, it was also a bit depressing. Don’t the employees deserve some time off? Do you REALLY need anything after about 7pm on a Sunday that can’t wait until Monday — or that you couldn’t pick up from the gas station convenience store? Is nothing sacred anymore?
Now that I’ve adapted to the rules here, I think limited Sunday shopping hours are a good thing. It’s actually nice knowing exactly when stores will open and close. It’s lovely to have Sunday mornings for lying around, doing the crossword, drinking coffee and making pancakes, going to church, whathaveyou, but not HAVING to do anything. And it’s nudged me into becoming a bit more organized, too. I now know that if we’re, say, going to make brunch on Mother’s Day, we’d better get my supplies on Saturday, or be stuck buying extreme mark-up bacon and eggs at 7-11 on Sunday morning (and we can forget about that bag of potatoes we were in charge of bringing).
So, what do you think about Sunday shopping hours? Do you like the prescribed, set hours, or do you think stores should be free to set their own hours? Do you remember a time when there was no Sunday shopping at all in Manitoba?
*I know, I know. We WoMH’ers listen to a lot of CBC.
I remember having to buy Christmas presents at a 7-11 on Christmas day because I had forgotten all of mine back at home. That is a challenge, let me tell you.
Sunday shopping: I’m OK with the way it is. Some people need to work Sundays to make extra money, and I appreciate the ability to pick something up if I need it.
Sunday shopping hours were an adjustment for me when I moved back to Winnipeg. In Mississauga, I lived not far from a couple of 24-hour grocery stores.
I still have to remind myself than I can’t run off to Safeway at 9:00am on Sundays…
On a related note, try shopping on Remembrance Day if it falls on a Sunday. I remember that Nov. 11 is observed and that shops are open after than. I think the 12-5 Sunday hours are pretty civilized balancing off people who need extra work, and the convenience for consumers. Try living in Ontario where I freak out before every holiday weekend, as I need to check if my local gigantic grocerty store will be open on holiday Monday.
I’d like to live in a city that regularly closed down stores just to give myself any requirement of mental discipline therein. Like Dana said, there’s always something open in Toronto, so I don’t even tend to store supplies in that extended, pioneer kind of way.
There have been a few statutory holidays where literally nothing was open – not markets, restaurants, anything – and I had nothing in the fridge, and everyone I knew was visiting their families. You end up post-apocalyptically stalking the streets, looking for hobos with tins of ravioli, prepared to barter with violence.
But I just know that, if everything was closed on Sunday, it’d somehow get into my head to buy enough food to last me a week. Organized indeed.
I have to donate my two Sunday-shopping cents to the discussion!
There are
As someone who has developed a double-edged flair for working in retail,
being closed on Sundays is just out of the question. We seem to be in
agreement that stores being open Sundays, even if limited to 12pm-6pm,
is a good thing. As for the restricted hours, I truly, honestly don’t think it
matters. Please don’t see it as doing anyone any favours.
many people (high school students, ambitious 20-somethings, university
students, single parents, new Canadians, etc.) who are desperate to
work extra hours into their work week, and I have to remind you that
sometimes our luxuries are their best opportunities to earn extra cash.
It’s not a “blessing” for someone who’s looking to earn extra cash, that they
aren’t needed at their part-time job since a shift that starts at 11:30am
and ends at 6:30pm can be worked by just one person – making it unnecessary
to bring in two employees for the day.
I am on the fence about the issue. Nobody seems to making a stink of it here in Winnipeg (and it seems Winnipeggers like to make a stink of things they don’t approve of), so I must assume this is the status quo. You can shop on Sundays; however, it’s only during certain hours. Seems to work fine for everyone involved. But I do miss late night shopping on Sundays!!!
Here’s a question: how do the 24-hour Wal-Mart stores circumvent the rules? Because they are open 24-hours/365?
http://tinyurl.com/ylglehe
Sunday hours are fine as they are I think, if you need something so badly, get it prior to Sunday or during the allotted hours. I don’t understand why people need to have stores open at all times so that they feel they can just go get whatever they need whenever they need. It’s convenience run amok. And the 24hr Wal-Mart’s are still only open 12-6 on Sundays, 24hrs the rest of the week.