Sunday trading

[maccboy]

Sunday trading means that most stores 'close' at 4pm. Does this mean the tills close at 4pm, and if you haven't bought by then you can't? Or does it mean you can buy as long as you are in the shop by 4pm? No relevance to anything, I was just musing.

[Your Dad]

Depends. How big is the shop and what time did it open?

[zb]

Normally, an announcement is made 15:50 "closing in 10 mins, to make your final purchases, head to till". The door will be locked, and customers are only let out.

If you are not at the till by 16:00, you aint buying.

[maccboy]

Your Dad said:

Depends. How big is the shop and what time did it open?

Big Aldi, but any large store that 'shuts' at 4pm.

[thepritch]

I’d forgotten this was a thing. Being back in Scotland I’ve got used to shops being open way past 4 on Sundays.

As for the question, I think the transaction had to be completed by 4, but never left it that late to see what happened to those in the queue behind us.

[sherman]

In Scotland Sunday is just a normal trading day for the supermarkets.
Alcohol off sales are restricted to 10am-10pm but thats every day anyway.
Even the God fearing folk of Stornoway have a Tesco open 12pm-8pm (since November 2024)

[Mojooo]

Shops over 280sqm can only open for 6 hours - but they can be any 6 hours.

When I worked at a supermarket it often overran by about 15 mins max whilst we cleared the last custoemrs - technically illegal I guess as the store opened at 10 and shut at 4.

[gotoPzero]

The mrs used to work for a LA doing enforcement stuff and IIRC they had a fairly relaxed view so long as you did not allow any more customers into the store after the 6 hours and then they gave 30 mins grace to get all those already in, out.

The main offenders were the big cash and carry type places.

Was years ago though so might have changed now.

[48k]

maccboy said:

Sunday trading means that most stores 'close' at 4pm. Does this mean the tills close at 4pm, and if you haven't bought by then you can't? Or does it mean you can buy as long as you are in the shop by 4pm? No relevance to anything, I was just musing.

Annoyingly when I worked in retail we were paid till store closing time which I always thought was unfair as you don't leave on the stroke of closing, the shop has to be cleared of customers and then your facing up needs to be done etc. Often not getting out till 20 or 30 mins after official store closing.