After Primark, now other fashion retailers call for extending trade hours

It’s been 2 weeks since England has gone into lockdown and there are still 2 more weeks to go!

With lockdown coming to an end on 2 December, many fashion retailers have urged the Government to extend trading hours once the restrictions are lifted.

Much before the lockdown had started, fashion retailer Primark had called for extending trading hours as that would give the retailer 3 weeks before Christmas Shopping.

Also Read: Primark urges Government to extend business hours after lockdown

And now other retailers have also joined the race and are backing Primark.

Peter Youell, MD, Skechers UK and Ireland, said that there could be threat of more controlled tiers when the blanket lockdown ends and if the retail trading gets impacted negatively, then the future of UK retailer could be in danger.

While JD Sports, according to Drapers, is calling for extending trading hours, retail giant Marks and Spencer (M&S) too has urged for extension of trading hours on Sunday.

Steve Rowe, Chief Executive, M&S, said that the retailer is lobbying hard with rest of the fashion industry to ensure working hours are extended following lockdown.

Clothing retailer White Stuff too shares the same thoughts! White Stuff, which mostly has smaller out-of-town stores, said it might want to extend trading time by 2 hours and not more than that.

However, there are some retailers who feel Black Friday could eat into Christmas sales and if shoppers end up buying gifts in advance, then there would be actually no need to extend trading hours.

It needs to be now seen whether the Government agrees to the call of the retailers.