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Would we have a better family unit if we stopped Sunday trading? This is a throw away question but I would like to know what everybody thinks. I think a lot of parents are missing out on family time because of weekend work. Let me know your thoughts…
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Sunday trading is a symptom of the problem, the problem being poor priorities combined with overly individualistic out look both at a societial level and an individual/family level.
The priority is productivity and profitibility and the individual is the money maker (not limited to actual business activities).
The argument says, in the interests of the priority, it doesn’t matter which day I take off as long as I get a day off, thus allowing 7 day trading as long as an employee gets some time off at some point.
The problem for the family being of course they are as individuals not in a position to hang around all week waiting to have a day off as a family because they are also part of a greater community, a community that must adhere to the priority and a community that doesn’t care which day I have off work.
Any family that, as a family, rearranges its priorities to make profitability and individual money making less important than the strength of the family unit will be a stronger unit.
A restriction on Sunday trading or even an attempt at arestriction would certainly help by high lighting the problem here but it would not, I believe at this stage of our society address the deeper nature of the problem.
As a point of interest I am in an industry where I am at work 24/7 (we certainly engage in Sunday trading) for up to a month at a time, my time off is taken in equally long blocks. My family unit takes a higher priority than anything else while I am at home and is strong as a result, at the expense of other more profitable etc activities I could be engaged in.
Comment by Angus — Sat 25th October 2008 @ 6:55 am
Before my family was stolen from me by the NZ state, i used to enjoy shopping on Sundays with my kids, free of the stresses of cramming all the weekly purchases of Saturday shopping, i thought it was a step forward to keep pace with what most of the world already has ! Plenty of places to park, not as many people, great ! Why should the shops open , when all the workers are at work, they should open also when workers are not at work. I am sure that the sales are better too.
Of course the ex wife contributed nothing to the weekly shop, except a visit to the jewelry store !
Comment by Perseus — Sat 25th October 2008 @ 8:13 am
I recently had a few visitors from the Far North staying with me. They were not originally from the Far North but from Auckland and they say that on a Sunday 90% of shops were closed. The 10% was made up of petrol stations and the odd dairy. Generally speeking they prefer it that way.
Before Sunday trading there was, and still is, late night shopping which worked I think. It could be agrued that stretching shop opening ours from 52 to 60 hours is also stretching the $ – lets face it, if your going to spend money somewhere you will find time to do it somewhere in that 52 hours and the extra 8 hours needs to be staffed.
Having one day a week where the whole family can get together and spend time doing family things seems lost in the mists of time.
Comment by Tigerseye — Sat 25th October 2008 @ 8:35 am
I agree that is one of many areas relevant to the welfare of families. A change to weekend trading rules would be a good addition to a raft of policies designed to restore some respect for the welfare of family units. The change need not be huge, it only needs to provide some impetus towards a desirable direction. For example, I would think it enough to require retailers to pay employees considerably more than they currently need to for Saturday afternoon and Sunday work, and to outlaw any employment contracts that oblige workers to work those days (except for crucial services). I don’t see the need to ban weekend trading completely.
Comment by Hans Laven — Sat 25th October 2008 @ 5:31 pm
religious overtones are not welcome on http://www.menz.org.nz
different topic, but….
*** any more news on family court fudge, peter ‘pervert’ mc aloon whom was stood down on august 1st, 08 with a golden handshake ??? ***
Worth a thread maybe, but i have no idea how to start a thread.
Comment by Colin of Nazareth — Sat 1st November 2008 @ 8:14 am
What religious overtones are you talking about Colin?
If you check the top of the page you will see a link called “write” – that’s how you start a thread.
Comment by Tigerseye — Sat 1st November 2008 @ 8:59 am
SUNDAY, dear chap… “is nothing sacred ?” should have been my reply…
Comment by Colin of Nazareth — Sat 1st November 2008 @ 8:02 pm