Following the chancellor’s budget statement yesterday, the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) is delighted to hear that that there are moves afoot to relax the Sunday Trading Laws.
HTA CEO Carol Paris comments, “This could really benefit the horticultural sector as a whole and is one of the ‘asks’ of Government in the recently published industry wide ‘Ornamentals Action Plan’.
"The HTA has been lobbying on Sunday trading for over two decades now and we are delighted that at last moves are being taken to remove this outdated piece of legislation.”oot to relax the Sunday Trading Laws in order to allow all retail businesses, including garden centres, to trade on a level playing field.
She adds, “This is all about choice – choice for the public to shop when they would like and choice for garden retailers to open when they like. With online trading allowing people to shop 24/7 it is ridiculous that someone can sit and eat in a garden centre restaurant (which are exempt from the law) on a Sunday and order garden product online but not actually purchase products instore.
"Gardening continues to be one of the nation’s favourite pastimes and weekends are typically when more time is spent on doing outdoor projects and so a relaxation of the law will no doubt provide a welcome boost to trade.”
Comments
The only reservation I have is that people will not get a break from work. If you want to compete 24/7 with the internet, trade on the internet yourself.
We're told that nobody's got any money at the moment with cutbacks but apparently customers need a full 24/7 shopping week?!
Will this go the way of those pubs who found that being open longer hours meant the same number of customers appeared but over a longer period? Will garden centres miss the shorter but busier Sundays?
Until last year I was in retail horticulture and hated working Sundays; lots of people about but not buying anything! For as long as I remember Sundays in a garden centre/nursery haven't been anywhere near as profitable as Saturdays.