Retailers welcome Sunday trading move

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 8

Retailers welcome Sunday trading move

By

PATRICK MCLENNAM

and RICHARD CRESSWELL

. Christchurch retailers support liberalisation of shop trading hours, but the union which covers retail workers, is not impressed. The president of the Christchurch Retailers’ Association, Mr Stan Smith, says the new trading hours will be well used in the week-ends leading up to Christmas.

After the New Year this might change, but areas like ■ New Brighton were geared up to start and continue trading immediately.

Christchurch retailers had sought the liberalisation of trading hours “for quite some time,” heWd. --

Clearly the Government’s move to extend hours was a response to the many applications it had received from retailers hoping to extend their pre-Christmas hours.

The new hours would straighten out. anomalies in the previous hours. A big benefit for Christchurch, would be the increased tourist dollars that were at present going begging because shops were closed on Sundays, Mr Smith said.

Shopping was increasingly seen overseas as a leisure-time activity, and the new trading hours could result in • New Zealand retailers picking up an increasing amount of discretionary. spender Smith said there could be

some difficulty in persuading shop employees of the benefits of the increased hours. “But most employers will take a responsible attitude. I’m sure there will be protection in the new legislation for employees,” he said. • .A spokesman for the New Brighton District Business Association, Mr Noel Hobbs, called the new hours a victory “for the right to trade.” About 80 retailers in the area had supported the original application for dispensation, but now even those who did not support it could open during the new hours, x he said. New Brighton shops had an extensive, publicity campaign planned to attract pre-Christmas s

shoppers, and were "semiprepared” for the immediate start. All members of the association would meet this evening to discuss the. approach the New Brighton area would take to the changes. , Mr Hobbs said the association already had dispensation from the previous act to open on the three Sundays before Christmas. The manager of the Linwood City Mall, Mrs Gail McKenzie, said freeing up of.hours had been expected. She said there had been tremendous pressure for reform? “But if it is freed-up for the whole year, other Issues need to be looked at, such as the wages,” she said.

Under present wage rates for penal time, such as work on Sunday, it was not viable for retailers to be open every Sunday. There were good and bad points about opening up hours, and only time would tell if it was a good idea, she said. The manager of the Cycle Warehouse, Mr Rodney Hibbard, said the changes to the trading hours were "very interesting.” The Cycle Warehouse had tried to trade on a Sunday recently but another cycle shop in the city had taken out an injunction to prevent it from trading, he said. “These changes will be exciting for the consumer,” he said. ' The decision was simply a C>

response to public demand. “Late-night shopping has died out, and the interest in Sunday shopping has been high. It is a time when the whole family can shop together.

“We wasted a lot of (judicial) time trying to open on Sunday which they could have spent elsewhere.”

The managing director of Mr Sergio’s, Mr Craig Nicholas, said his shop had spent about $l5OO in legal fees for shbp-trading-hours hearings ,

Mr Sergio’s is now the only city men’s wear shop with a Sunday licence.

If staff worked a Sunday they would receive two days off in lieu, he said.