Want to get a screw on a Sunday?

[derf]

DIY chains win Sunday case

The Connexion

Tuesday 29th October, 2013

TWO DIY chains have been allowed to open their

Ile-de-France stores on Sunday by a court of appeal.Castorama and Leroy

Merlin were initially ordered to shut after a case brought by rival

Bricorama. Bricorama was forced to close on Sundays at the beginning of

2012 after the FO union took it to court.It argued that if it was forced

to shut on Sunday, so should its rivals.[:)]

[Quillan]

French version

http://www.leparisien.fr/economie/ouverture-du-dimanche-castorama-et-leroy-merlin-peuvent-rouvrir-29-10-2013-3268591.php

 

[Rob Roy]

In my opinion that's the start of the slippery downward slope.One of the things I love about France is that there is no Sunday shopping.

[Quillan]

[quote user="Rob Roy"]In my opinion that's the start of the slippery downward slope.One of the things I love about France is that there is no Sunday shopping.[/quote]

An urban myth, there is quite a bit of shopping on Sundays in France excluding Sunday markets.

[dave21478]

double post

[dave21478]

[quote user="Rob Roy"]In my opinion that's the start of the slippery downward slope.One of the things I love about France is that there is no Sunday shopping.[/quote]

In my opinion this might be the start of a good thing.... Its time

France got with the 21st Century and started giving the consumers what

they want, not what officials say they should get.

Working full time means that shops closing on Sundays has a very large impact on our lives.

Closing

for lunch, closing on Mondays, closing on Sundays....retail in this

country is in a ***state, to say nothing of bad customer service, price

fixing and completely uninterested staff who are happy to coast along

doing as little as they can.

[dave21478]

[quote user="Quillan"]

[quote user="Rob Roy"]In my opinion that's the start of the slippery downward slope.One of the things I love about France is that there is no Sunday shopping.[/quote]

An urban myth, there is quite a bit of shopping on Sundays in France excluding Sunday markets.

[/quote]

I dont know where you live, but in the two cities nearest to me, both are completely, utterly deserted on a Sunday.

Unless you want useless Chinese plastic rubbish from Gifi.

[Quillan]

Perhaps I should have said Sunday morning. f you visit Carcassonne there are two commercial areas and both have supermarkets, shops etc open in the morning on Sundays. Where I live our nearest town is just 4km away, all three supermarkets are open on Sunday morning. There are also two Sunday markets. Perpignan, there are many shops open on Sunday both in the town and in the commercial zone.

[Quillan]

I wonder if this is a cultural thing, a difference between the British and the French. I so miss the ability to shop 24/7 in the UK and it was very handy if you worked during the week and had a DIY project at home to complete. You always forget something and to be able to pop in to B&Q on a Sunday to get that missing bit was very handy. Shopping after work in the supermarkets at say 22:00 on Friday (very popular judging by the amount of people doing the same thing at the time) meant you had more free time at the weekend.

The other side of the story, the french side, can be best explained by the thoughts of some guests the other night. They lived in Pau and were very adamant that they did not want shops open on a Sunday. This was because the place was basically deserted on Sundays, no cars, no lorries and no noise. Even when I tried to explain the benefits for those that worked they would have none of it. The only compromise that we could come up with is to try it for a year and see how it goes as a referendum, which would be the best solution, would be out of the question.

[Chancer]

Ditto here, I once found a bemused family of English tourists peeking into Gifi on a Sunday, they had made the mistake of coming to France for a long weekend when the Friday was a pont, they had been eating at MacDonalds the whole time, I had to break it to them that the Monday would be the same.

The guy was looking for beer to drown his sorrows.

I am going to a small bricolage today when it opens, its more of a scrapyard with a shop that sells or rather doesnt because their prices are so high bankrupt stock, a family firm with uncles daughter in laws etc, you know the type of place that has a cabin reserved for the cashier, the only person allowed to give a price or take money who sits there bored to tears all (short) day long because no-one goes there.

As someone who gets up late and has to set his alarm to be able to get to Brico-depot before it closes for lunch I find it bizzare that I am up before they open, still it is Sunday.

They are closed 2 days in the week and have a two and a half hour lunch break when they do open!

[Rob Roy]

Perhaps I should also have qualified my reply - our local supermarkets are also open Sunday mornings and of course there are many Sunday morning markets, but around this way (as far as I'm aware) there is no all day shopping such as you see in U.K. town centres and shopping centres.

Even if you work full time it's still possible to shop on others days of the week apart from Sunday IMO; we all managed it before 1994 after all.

[Quillan]

I am just wondering once you exclude religious reasons and the fact that many of these places are on commercial zones outside towns and cities what the objection is? As far as the workers are concerned providing nobody forces them to work on a Sunday then surely it is up to them. I mean they can only work 40 hours per week (including overtime) so I would think it will make little diffeence apart from some having their shift changed (and the changes are not forced on them). As for those public that object nobody is forcing them to go visit any of these shops.

[sid]

Dead right RR ! 

I hope full Sunday opening in France doesn't happen in my lifetime! For some of us it doesn't matter anyway, retired, we can shop the other 6 days.  I loved those days as a kid when we put on our "Sunday best" and strolled in the park.  Why do people think they are so busy these days? It's because they waste a lot of time. Social networking! Bah humbug.

 

[John Brown]

In the "real world of hourly paid retail employment" in the UK now, you are told you will be working so many Sundays and Bank Holidays each year. There is no choice.

I remember looking out of a BQ store on a Boxing Day morning at 9.30am at 50 plus cars with people waiting for the store to open at 10.00

One guy in particular came in at 10.00am just to return rolls of wallpaper?

We even had people asking could they stay in the store after the tills close at 4.00pm on Sunday just to look around but not buy

I for one, would rather go hungry on Sunday than encourage Sunday trading here

John

[PaulT]

Well, no one should work on a Sunday if shop workers should not. That means no:

hospitals, electricity, telephone, internet, water, television, radio, police, armed forces, fire brigade, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, sport.... ooh, the list goes on and on.

In St Gaudens thers is a Brico Marche that did not close for lunch and was open on a Sunday. New owners now so coses for lunch and does not open on a Sunday. Some of us do DIY on a Sunday.

[sid]

[quote user="PaulT"]

Well, no one should work on a Sunday if shop workers should not. That means no:

hospitals, electricity, telephone, internet, water, television, radio, police, armed forces, fire brigade, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, sport.... ooh, the list goes on and on.

In St Gaudens thers is a Brico Marche that did not close for lunch and was open on a Sunday. New owners now so coses for lunch and does not open on a Sunday. Some of us do DIY on a Sunday.

[/quote]

Most of those are what we call "essential services". I hardly think that buying a lampshade and a roll of wallpaper on a Sunday falls into that category. you have to remember that a lot of us came here BECAUSE it's how it is here, and if we change to be just like good ole UK we may as well have stayed at home. Sunday here still has strong family conditions; something we lost in UK years ago.

Now I've just remembered why I stopped posting on here.

 

[tonyinfrance]

The dilemma for France is how to become competitive in the international market to keep their economy afloat whilst maintaining their brilliant quality of life - no easy answer as far as I can see.

Personally I like the "closed on Sundays" approach but then I don't do DIY or anything much else on a Sunday apart from a visit to the boulanger and perhaps a vide grenier.

It's difficult to run a business in France which is why we see so many of their brightest and best in London but as Sid says above many of us like France as she is, warts and all........

 

[PaulT]

Have France the way it was...........

How far back do you want to go as the way it was would have been extremely basic dependent upon how far you wish to go back. The wat it is now is called progress but should progress stop?