Why I seldom shop on Sundays

Nearly 40 years ago, soon after I returned from Africa and India to live in the UK, I ran a campaign against the government of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Prime Minister at the time, who wanted, in effect, to abolish Sundays as a special day by totally deregulating shop opening hours. She had a huge majority in the British Parliament, so everyone assumed the legislation would go through easily; but there was a historic defeat of the government’s legislation on April 14, 1986.^[1] Subsequent proposals were successful in liberalising Sunday trading, but fell well short of the total deregulation originally proposed.

Why did that matter? For two reasons. Firstly, rest matters for our long-term well-being.

Recent research has shown that rest impacts on brain performance, increased concentration, mental health and improved memory, mood and a person’s sense of well-being. It also lowers risks of serious health problems like diabetes and heart disease, while contributing to a healthier immune system, reduced stress, improved mood and even a better metabolism. It helps a person think more clearly and do better in school and at work.

But secondly, relationships matter at the level of human communities, and relationships need time. Time is the currency of relationships in the same way that money is the currency of the economy,^[2] and a weekly shared day off ensures time for relational priorities — time with our families and communities. In the UK, because comparatively few people are at work on a Sunday, we are more able to give such time to our relationships. It helps to make sure that we’re not too busy with our work, TV, social media and shopping to spend time face-to-face with our relatives and friends.

So how does this view of how Sundays impact on our relationships, and how it ensures that everybody has a chance to rest from their work one full day each week, help explain why I seldom shop on a Sunday?

From an employee’s point of view, it makes an enormous difference whether the shops and other businesses are closed on Sundays. It is not enough to guarantee to an employee that they can have one weekday off each week, because it is likely that other members of the family will be working and children will be at school. For example, if I’m given Wednesdays off each week, and my spouse or partner is given Thursdays off, we may not have a single day when we are together at home. This is particularly important if we have children who are at school from Monday to Friday; parents and children can only be at home on the same day at the weekend.

If I shop on a Sunday, probably without being conscious of it, I may well be contributing in a small way to the breakdown of families and marriages. My individual decisions and choices may not be enough to change the behaviour of the shop or store. However, by deciding not to shop myself I am making a statement to relatives, friends and neighbours that I believe everyone should have the opportunity to be with their families on one day each week, and at a deeper level that our relationships matter more than our material possessions.

How this works out in practice will vary from country to country around the world, depending on the current situation and form of government. But the need for a generally shared day off should be a significant issue for relationists, on which we should be trying to influence legislators to limit or reduce shop opening hours on each country’s traditional day of rest.^[3]

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