Sunday Opening.

The Palma City Council should be congratulated for passing the necessary legislation which allows shops to open on Sunday but it is a pity that only a handful of retailers have actually decided to open at the weekends. I walked down the Jaime III in Palma on Sunday, and I think there were just three shops open; two were Chinese owned and the third was El Corte Ingles. I wanted to have a cup of coffee but all the bars and restaurants were closed. To make matters worse, there were quite a lot of shoppers around. When are shopkeepers in Palma going to realise that weekend openings, especially during the summer months is the only way forward? Retail sales in Spain have nose-dived and shoppers are watching their pennies. So retailers must use every opportunity to get shoppers through their doors. The Palma City Council has put the necessary legal requirements in place for extended openings. The cruise ship season will shortly get underway on a larger scale and it is vital that shops are open on a Sunday which is the day of the week when the most number of vessels visit the port. It is not rocket science. Now I know that there is a powerful lobby which is opposed to Sunday opening. Higher staff costs is one of the key reasons. But retailers must move with the times if they are going to survive this awful recession. There is little point opening on a Monday and claiming that there is no trade. If they had opened on a Sunday it would have been more lucrative.