Supermarket giant Lidl is petitioning a council in Northern Ireland to allow its stores to open for longer on Sundays.
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council launched a public consultation after the retailer requested that Coleraine and Ballymoney be given ‘holiday resort status’, which would enable Lidl stores to open from 9am to 9pm during the peak tourist season.
Last year, similar requests by Lidl to avoid the Province’s Sunday trading regulations were rejected for Enniskillen, Lisnaskea, Bangor and Newtownards, but approved in Newry, Ballynahinch and Londonderry.
Glyn Roberts, Chief Executive of Retail NI, said: “This is not about tourism, this is about the large supermarkets trying to exploit a loophole in the legislation.”
He added: “We don’t believe there is the support for this in Coleraine or Ballymoney, I think many of the independent retailers are completely opposed to it.”
This is not about tourism, this is about the large supermarkets trying to exploit a loophole in the legislation.
Winnie Mellett, local shop owner and President of Ballymoney’s Chamber of Commerce, commented: “I definitely wouldn’t open on a Sunday. I wouldn’t ask my staff to work on a Sunday.
“A good few of my staff have small families and it’s the only time they get to spend with them.”
In contrast, Chick-fil-A, a US fast-food chain run on Christian principles, has guaranteed that staff at its new store in Northern Ireland will not have to work on Sundays.
The successful company’s outlet at Lisburn motorway service station is only open Monday to Saturday, as its founder “saw the importance of closing on Sundays so that he and his employees could set aside one day to rest and worship if they choose”.
Welcoming the brand’s stance, retired Free Presbyterian minister David McIlveen said: “It’s nice to hear that there is a company that’s not opening on Sundays. There is also a dimension in preserving the Lord’s Day that is of benefit to those who are non-Christian. We need bodily refreshment and that is part of the whole purpose of having a day set apart out of seven.”
Popular high street toyshop The Entertainer has also consistently remain closed on Sundays despite commercial pressures, particularly at Christmas.
In October, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) warned that an Alliance proposal to extend Sunday trading hours in Belfast would harm “workers, their families and our communities”.
USDAW General Secretary Paddy Lillis said allowing large stores to open for longer hours on Sundays “would take a heavy toll on staff who would come under even more pressure to work”.
Under such changes, Lillis observed, retail workers would miss out on spending time with their families and being able to attend church.
Only a few decades ago, a high view of the Lord’s Day was standard among English-speaking evangelicals. Yet today, there are many Christians for whom the whole notion of one day set aside for God seems a quaint throw-back to Victorian values. It is easy to feel intimidated by the tide of this popular thinking within the evangelical world.