General Chat

A group who is campainging for shopping to be availible 24 /7 have said it would boost britains economy and would give people more choice when they could do there shopping.....Sorry can we go back abit...don't people have a life who work in retail...having to cater for the publics needs.they have families and a social life and the way retail is going at the moment tehy have limited staff which would mean taht the people who work long hours now would have pressure put on themselves....can i just say if the economy is that bad it is all down to the goverment...least we forget we will be losing BAA to a foriegn company and taht is where the rest of the companies who have lost out to the far east have gone...so before we say yes lets have shops open 24/7 if we did keep our companies here wouldn't taht boost the economyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx))))):

I think it's a good idea. It might help some people get into work too, if they have other commitments. I'd be up for it.

it should be optional though...i work in retail now and where i work they have no choice...i have a child and would be opting out of it....How about christmas and Easter ...the unions have been fighting retail companies on not opening on public holidays ...people have a life....I have to work boxing day and even new years day they are open ..it just isn't rightxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx))))):

Well you don't have to work on public holidays. I always thought if you said no, there was nothing they could do about it.

Hi Lisa, i work in a store thats already open 14hrs a day, 7 days a week and that causes enough problems with staffing. There's suggestions that we should be open on christmas day this year and as you can imagine the staff are up in arms about it. While its all well and good providing a service we do have lives of our own and families that need us there too, we're only closed christmas day as it is.

I work in a shop which is only closed 3 days a year. It is okay if they employ students that want to work weekends to earn a few quid but just recently they have been cutting our hours to a minimum. I dont like working Sundays but am now forced to just to make up my hours. I think anybody that wants to spend just one day a week having a proper meal with the family is entitled to. If we have 24 hour shopping then peoples contracts should start by saying which hours they will be working and it should be stuck to....

thats Ok if you don't work in retail, having to be at work at 7am every morning.....working to 9.30pm every day.....working Sundays, Christmas eve, Boxing day, 1st Jan....Easter, yeh, it just great....not......can't have your hols, because, oh.....it stock take or no, its Easter, Christmas, a bank holiday!....The public only have a certain amount of money to spend, so the companies won't take anymore would they?......The retail is all ready understaffed, as the Companies all work on a Budget, so, there is no more money for overtime or extra staff.........if they opened at night, it would mean paying staff extra for unsocialable hours, and the Companies are going to lose profit.....na.....not a very good idea in my option.......guess who works in retail lol......Lilly

My name's Daisy and I'm a Shopaholic. However, shops are staffed by people not robots and they presumably work to live and not the other way round. 24/7 is really pushing it I think. Daisy

who is that desperate to want to buy a tin of beans at 1.30am on a Monday?

I personally think 24 hour shopping is an excellent idea..... not everyone in the world works days and has weekends off so when do they get to shop? More people would be able to come off the dole and more people would have the choice to work nights if they wanted too.

avoiding the main issue somewhat... lots of other industries already work 24*7

I dont think its a good idea but I can see both sides. I have a hobby that takes me away from home on Saturdays, from early morning often to mid or late evening. So when I was working full-time as well, Sunday opening was a real blessing. When our local supermarket started 24 hour opening, I did go once or twice around 11-12pm to try to avoid the small children and ditherers I am plagued with if I go during the day. But many of the shelves were empty, and there were very few staff around to help. No fresh bread either... But surely people don't have unlimited funds? 24/7 opening might result in a small overall increase in sales, but surely people will spend the same amount over more hours - so in effect the shops turnover per hour (if you look at it that way) will decrease? So again, its the smaller shops who suffer, as they can't afford the costs of extra staffing etc.

paul i am not being funny but 24 hr retail is not a life or death situation is it...the fire service and ambulance service and police are needed and others ...but running out of a loaf of bread doesn't warrant a 24 hr servicexxxxxxxxxxxx((((:

Sorry! I think its a terrible idea! Having worked in retail(I now dont) I know how it works,the staff are over worked and poorly paid, they say its done on a rota system,well it very rarely works, you find that the same staff work over and over again, and management dont get any rest, I think its a terrible sign of the times, Sunday trade should also go! What about shop workers,dont they Shop? I

The local tescos here is open 24 hours a day already - it really useful for those that work long day shifts. As Paul has said, some people might find it helpful to be able to work unusual hours. That said, I dont think that anyone that currently works days shoul dbe forced to work nights.

Louise,Well said,I agree,When I worked in retail, I very rarely had a weekend free,I was management and it was just expected of you to work sundays,I would never work in retail again, the whole industry needs a good looking at,its disgusting!

Its a bit of a nightmare when i have to do the staffing anyway, we're only allocated so many hours overtime a week and trying to keep to the budget is a task and a half. I always end up working at least 15hrs over my contract with very little choice in the matter, yes the extra money comes in handy but at a cost to my family life. We opened boxing day and new years day last year for the first time and i think it probably cost more to pay the staff and run the shop than we took anyway as only a handful of people filtered in when they realised we were open.

unfortuntley 24/7 shopping would be an easy transition to make - many large supermarkets already open 24hours (8am Mon - 10 pm Sat) but only 6 hours on a sunday and bank holidays. Personally I don't like seeing places open on a Sunday - there's no need for it!, we managed with shops being open 6 days a week for generations and we could do again is we thought about it. The only good thing about shops being open 24/7 is people like Docters and Nurses, would be able to finish work at any time of the day or night and call in to a shop on the way home to pick something up if they need to. Hospital staff are not as luckey as other people, they have to work at christmas, new year and even nights and weekends - as the sick need looking atfer 24/7 365 days a year not just M-F 9-5. Ususally thought the deal is if you work Christmas the you have New Year off and visa-versa so there is a small amount of negotiation.

In principle I'm not against - I hate shopping most of the time - but only if the operation is staffed properly and workers get decent pay (and don't feel forced or bullied into working ridiculous hours). Even if that means we have to pay a bit extra at the tills... As Paul says, a lot of industries are 24/7, not just emergency services, but call centres, IT support facilities etc.

i agree with you paul on the people that work days being forced to do it...but how would it work unless a company is prepared to pay out of hours service say double time they will force day workers to change there shifts...that is when i feel the unions will step inxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx(((((: