Forty years ago, retail trading hours for shops were heavily restricted on weekends. Shops were required to close at noon on a Saturday and were not permitted to trade on a Sunday. By the 1980s, major retailers such as Harvey Norman, Norman Ross and Waltons were challenging the laws by identifying loopholes with either success or failure.
Extending retail hours on weekends was opposed by the unions, citing the right of workers to have Sunday off and continued throughout the decade, though by the end of the decade, Sunday trading would be phased in, though gradually into the 1990s.
Meanwhile, a court ruling in 1982 by Jim Macken in the NSW Industrial Commission raised concerns about big businesses i.e. Harvey Norman and Norman Ross extending their trading hours at the expense of small businesses, which relied on the weekend trade for their survival.
The Sydney Morning Herald's weekly Metro liftout published a feature in 1982 that provided Sydneysiders with a guide to shopping on weekends once the shutters went down at noon on Saturdays.
Reporter Mary Lord spent one weekend exploring the metropolitan area to see what was open on weekends and this is what she unearthed:
- Birkenhead Point offered "everything" on a Sunday.
- Manly offered options for "After-hours shopping" including clothing stores, bookstores and chemists.
- Kings Cross - most of the usual shops were open but 'very little" could actually be bought on Sundays
- Harvey Norman, Auburn - "mecca" on Parramatta Road, which attracted "more buyers at weekends".
- Norman Ross & Waltons conducted "warehouse sales" at Homebush, Homebush Bay or Granville as they would not be subject to general shop laws.
- Hardware stores - smaller stores were open on weekends.
- Hudson's in Miranda was "open at back and staffed by management only"
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