Sunday trading begins in England and Wales

Now I Can Stop Shopping Solely At The Petrol Station! (Though I Won’t)Fans of commerce and blasphemy, rejoice! Today was the day, in 1994, that shops in England and Wales threw open their heavily fortified doors and allowed Sunday trading to commence for the first time. Though nobody really noticed that much difference as lots of shops had already been breaking the old law for years. That said, for the first time ever, you could enter a Marks and Spencer, a House of Fraser or a Waitrose and purchase sundries until you were blue in the face.

A group called Keep Sunday Special opposed the move and wanted to keep that day of the week, well, special. To appease them, the law stated that shops couldn’t open on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day (if it was on a Sunday). Tragically, boozers still had to abide with shorter pub opening hours on the sabbath. It took another year for that law to be changed so pubs could open all day on a Sunday. Finally upstanding citizens could travel from the supermarket and straight into their local in order to recover from the experience. Hurrah!