Closed on Sundays

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33527, 7 May 1974, Page 18

Closed on Sundays

Service station owners in Canterbury will be advised by the Canterbury branch of the Retail Motor Trade Association to close on Sundays.

The branch decided last evening to recommend that service stations remain open from Monday to Saturday, but close on Sundays. Although the branch recommended that service stations remain open on Saturdays, some members felt that week-end trading would still be unprofitable, says a statement released by the branch. About 200 members attended the meeting which lasted for two hours.

"To pay staff and cover all overheads, each staff member would have to sell on an average one gallon of petrol a minute and this was virtually impossible to achieve at the average service station,” says the statement.

The 1c increase in the profit margin for service stations was not sufficient to make Sunday trading profitable, because double time rates for staff would be about $3 an hour. Much of the motoring public had adjusted buying habits to fit in with the. restrictions introduced by the Government. “For those who have not adjusted, the restrictions governing coin pumps have been lifted and the Government is expected to gazette new regulations this week to enable coin pumps to remain open for 24 hours a day.”