Supermarket opening times (Light Hearted)

I remember that! Shops completely shut on Sundays as well. I see a few supermarkets are shutting for two days this year. Can only be a good thing I think.

There's a small convenience store/supermarket just down the road from us which is always open on Christmas day.

Many shops near us in Wales close at lunch time. Threw us a bit when we moved here .

Shops used to close for longer over Christmas than they do now, but the milk man still delivered milk every day. We didn't have fridges, and we didn't have use-by dates either - used our noses, eyes and common sense!

Shops also had half-day closing on a Wednesday around here.

I think it would be a good thing if shops closed for a few days so staff could have a proper holiday.

Some supermarkets are closing on Boxing Day. Off the top of my head I think that includes Lidl, Aldi, M&S and Waitrose. When I was working in a tea shop back in the 60s we used to close by about 4pm on Christmas Eve because people had given up shopping and were going home to get ready for the big day.

Christmas wasn't celebrated in Scotland until even as recently as the 1950s.

Hogmanay and New Year were and are more important. We still have 2 days bank holiday at New Year.

I thought that taurusmmukpp even in the 60s . My mother didn’t like a Saturday Christmas, Sunday Boxing Day
the following Monday and Tuesday were Bank Holidays. Then there would be the problem with New Year’s Day and the following Sunday which were also closed.

Yes both my parents went to work in the 50s and early 60s on Christmas Day. New Year was always a day off.

My first job on leaving school was in the office of a large furniture store. This was in the early 70s. We used to close at lunchtime on a Wednesday. I also remember the first couple of years I was there New Year’s Day didn’t used to be a bank holiday and I had to work. It wasn’t much fun staying up celebrating NYE and getting up to be at work for 9!

I know you said 'light hearted' - but honestly, I think it is ridiculous and sad too. Why can't shops close at 4pm on Christmas Eve and not re-open until the 27th, and let families enjoy the time together. Some professions have to work, nurses, ambulance, police, fire- but we can cope with shops closed for 2 days and a few hours!

Grandmadinosaur I remember working as a bus conductor on New Year’s Day in the early sixties after consuming too much alcohol after midnight. I never repeated that experience, once bitten, twice shy!

I completely agree with you Fleurpepper, a strange kind of madness seems to take over obviously whipped up by TV advertising.

Oh dear taurusmmukpp I can imagine that wasn’t much fun!

I remember in the early 60s busses would run on Christmas Day.

My parents had a corner shop in the early 60's, selling sweets, ice cream, some frozen veg, cigarettes and newspapers. Customers, without fridges, would ask if they could collect their ice cream, or frozen peas, on Christmas day.
The shop wasn't open, but there was frequent knocking on the door until about 3pm, when mum, dad, and my brother had their own dinner. Often joined by an aunt and uncle.

Oh yes, early closing day - either Wednesday or Thursday around here. We bought extra butter before Christmas (not the usual daily two ounces) and it was put in a jar outside the back door.

I'd be sent to collect the ice cream (wrapped in newspaper) just before the meal. All quite normal back then. Now, it's only Easter Sunday when supermarkets have to close and the convenience or corner shops always seem to be open!

I remember Christmas Eve Dad going into the local auction rooms to buy a turkey which mum would then have to prepare ready for the next day.

I'd be sent to collect the ice cream (wrapped in newspaper)
I'd forgotten about those blocks of icecream in cardboard packets which the grocer would wrap in newspaper. 🙂

Surely people can organise themselves for just two days without the need to go to the food shops.

We once had to take DD to her part-time job at a big shopping centre on Boxing Day as there were no buses.
The roads were gridlocked for miles around and we got her there about 2 hours late. The manager had only just got in herself to open up.

Aldi and assume Lidl too always close Christmas, boxing and New Year’s Day they also pay over £12 an hour to their staff.
I wrote to Sainsbury CEO a couple of years ago about them doing the same, especially given staff had worked through COVID. I didn’t even get an acknowledgement.
We managed years ago with Sunday and half day closing. There was no 12 or 24 hour opening and not many had fridges or freezers either.
In Europe shops still close Sundays and all bank holidays. It’s a pity we always follow the 24/7 American way of life. It’s really not necessary and staff need family time over bank hols. We won’t starve for a couple of days if shops closed.

When I was working as a nurse in the 60s it was a nightmare trying to fit in Christmas shopping and buying food. If my day off was a Wednesday then I only had until lunchtime to shop.
In 1971 I had a baby seven days before Christmas and DH had to do the shopping because the family were coming to visit, no car in those days, twenty minute bus trip to the nearest shop.

I grew up in a London suburb. There was a Sainsburys that didn’t open on Mondays (or Sundays obviously). John Lewis on Oxford Street closed at lunchtime on Saturday and opened again on Tuesday - their business model prioritised staff well-being. We also had local early closing on Thursdays. But everyone wasn’t so obsessed with shopping in those days.

When I first came to Germany shops closed at 6.30 pm. That was freedom for me, having come from the UK where shops shut at 5.30 pm with half day closing on Wednesdays, and shut all day Wednesdays, and of course on Sundays and Band Holidays.

However the rest of the opening times, which are still strictly regulated here in Germany were as follows: open from quite early (bakers at 6 am, other food shops maybe 8 am) except for posh clothes shops which may not open till 10 am.

Saturdays: closing at 2.30, except once a month, and in Advent. If a Bank holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday there is no day off on the Monday, but there are plenty of other days when everything closes (Epiphany, Easter Monday, Corpus Christi, Ascension Day, National holiday (which was on 17 June in those days.) and up to 7 others depending on where you lived.)

Germany still has one of the the shortest and strictest opening hours regulations, but don't go to the Netherlands on Lappendaag. Even the restaurants are shut. This may only apply to Hoorn where we were staying, but other towns may well have similar days.

Sorry - not sure where "shut all day Wednesdays" came from.

It isn't hard to make a list and think ahead. I have always done my last pre-Christmas shop 2 or 3 days before Christmas and then not gone near the shops again for anything until after the New Year, not even the Christmas sales. I do not use fresh milk, an intolerance problem, and I can see for all those who do that this will need to be bought, but otherwise, if people didn't go to the shops in the days between Christmas and New Year, they wouldn't open, or for fewer hours.

Shops open because the days immediately after Christmas are top trading days. We do not go on spending sprees between Christmas and New Year because we are forced to because the shops are open.

{Standard exclusion statement: I do understand that this could pose problems for those in poverty}