Shop move deplored

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 23

Shop move deplored

The proposal for Saturday shopping has come under fire from the Christchurch Catholic Commission for Justice and Development. The Government did not seem to be listening to people in its attempts to introduce Saturday shopping legislation, said Sister S. Smith, on behalf of the commission’s executive. Christchurch retailers and employers did not seem enthusiastic about such a change in the New Zealand way of life, she said. Sectors of the public saw it as a threat to family activities customarily associated with a Saturday.

The commission questioned whether liberalised trading hours would erode already threatened values and whether the Government had assessed the social effects of Saturday trading. One or two supermarkets chains and the big New Zealand companies which owned malls were the only ones likely to benefit from the legislation, Sister Smith said. “Is the Government really committed to the small people of society, or is it simply concerned with permitting big companies to maximise and increase their profits under the guise of service?”