It’s pleasing to see the recently introduced Sunday trading in Mackay (bringing Mackay into line with other coastal centres) is popular with local residents:

Sunday trading a hit in Mackay

It’s time for the Government to go further and consider further deregulation of trading hours across the State.  Why should Coles close at 6pm on a Sunday, for example?  Why should people have to race back from the Coast or leave afternoon barbeques early so they can squeeze in a trip to the supermarket?  There would be big gains in convenience to consumers if we allowed supermarkets to open longer hours.

All the traditional arguments in support of regulated trading hours seem to have less force nowadays.  It’s hard to argue that regulated trading hours prevent unsocial working hours when so many jobs nowadays are outside of ordinary hours and there are plenty of people, particularly students, who are willing to work at odd hours.  And the argument that we need to protect all the corner stores run by Mums and Dads is a lot weaker now that there are a lot fewer corner stores, with most of them replaced by IGAs at which we never see the Mums and Dads running them.

If there are any low hanging fruit out there for politicians interested in reform, deregulating trading hours is clearly one juicy piece.