Trading hours don’t affect only shop workers but also society at large. Excessive shop opening hours will force many others to work on Sundays and holidays or late at night. And do we really want all days to be the same, from Monday to Sunday, 365 days a year? More complex than we sometimes reflect on, opening hours cannot be left to market forces alone.
Once again, many shop workers worked on New Year’s Day. Of course, they were not the only ones. There were many others who spent the first day of 2015 at work instead of being with family and friends.
Societies have to function also on important holidays, and many services are needed. Some are clearly essential, others can be discussed. Retail shops provide important services for sure, but is it necessary that they do this 365 days a year, 7 days a week and 24 hours a day?
Trading hours is one of the issues that both business and trade unions, and society at large, need to look carefully at. Accepting that there are different values, traditions, cultures and also interests, we should do this with an open mind.
Retailing is an industry where substantial changes can happen fast. Today, much is about e-commerce. Web-sales continue to gain ground while jobs are lost in traditional commerce.
From the start, e-commerce has been used as an argument for trading hours liberalisation. High street shops and supermarkets cannot compete if they must follow shop opening rules. Trading hours restrictions have outlived themselves. The market and finally the consumers will decide. Limited hours drive customers from shops to the web, the proponents for removing shop opening rules say.
If stores really would be closed when consumers have time to shop this argumentation could make some sense. Many decades ago we could saw them close at 17 or so from Monday to Friday and 14 or 15 or even noon-time on Saturdays. There were serious calls by some unions for closing completely on Saturdays as well, to allow for a five day working week with the weekend free.
Even in the most regulated of environments today’s opening hours give plenty of time for shopping even for those with long working hours.
I cannot see that a regulated shop opening would be the major issue that drives consumers from high streets and supermarkets to the web. Other factors will surely be more important, such as price and assortment.
Some goods and services are just easier to select on the web than in a store. Bookstores and computer shops, home electronics outlets and traditional department stores face serious problems. Supermarket retailing on the internet continues to grow. Music and movies have already moved to electronic sites.
This will go on and traditional retailers will change, or suffer until it may be too late.
Over the years we got used to seeing commerce as a growth sector. It was a major entry road to employment and gave opportunities also for those whose formal education was not all that strong. Today we see shops being closed and staff being cut even where we did not think it would ever happen.
This can not be stopped or slowed down by letting market forces steer shop opening in an unregulated environment. Instead, we could see new problems emerge, for many, and for all of us.
Regulating trading hours is genuinely important for shop workers and others whose jobs are affected. Retailing is a low-wage industry where women form the big majority of the workforce. The negative social effects of excessive opening hours should not be ignored.
Eating from the fridge easily takes over from the Sunday dinner table. Doing and experiencing things as a family is more difficult and the role of parents and homes is undermined whilst everyone agrees that it should be strengthened. Day care centers are closed when they would be needed. To get home from work is difficult if public transport has ended for the day. Late night security risks abound.
The list could be much longer.
Inequalities have reached a level where even the World Economic Forum sees it as the biggest threat to our societies. The divide between those who have and those who don’t is deep and growing. Mass migration creates a third class in many societies. Unemployment is high and soaring.
Xenophobia and racism are on the rise. Young people who have lost hope revolt, and worse.
As this happens, business is taking the place of voters as the source of power. And, what does this have to do with shop opening hours?
The question is whose interests and which values drive the development of societies? Can economic interests be reconciled even better with cultural and social values?
Do we really want to give up our rhythm of life, for a new reality where everything is up and running 365 days a year and 7 days a week, possibly also 24 hours a day? From Monday to Sunday all days would be the same. If retailing goes this way, lots of other functions will have to follow a d extend their operating times. This would affect both the private and the public sectors – and workers.
What about employment then?
It is hard to see how this would promote job creation as retailing depends on the purchasing power of consumers and extending trading hours would hardly bring much added value. What may happen is that small shops, which in many countries already benefit from opening hours exceptions, would be pushed out even faster by larger operators.
There are seldom simple solutions to complex problems. Here we are dealing with a very complicated issue. Removing all regulations could have more negative consequences than positive effects. Changes and adjustments should of course be made when useful and necessary. The tricky thing is then to adapt to realities without losing human and cultural values.
Maybe the European social partners for commerce – UNI-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce – should do a study on trading hours, accepting that they would be likely to draw conflicting conclusions from the material. At least the issues would be jointly defined, the first step to enable a dialogue.