Little profit in Sunday opening

Sunday shopping has become part of the nation's weekend - but as more shops open to meet the demand, they are failing to find extra profits, according to a report published today.

Three years after Sunday trading was introduced, more than half of Britons take advantage of the law change, an annual survey found. Shopping on the Sabbath has overtaken other more traditional pastimes on the "day of rest"; only one in eight Britons regularly sits down to a family Sunday lunch.

The number of stores open for trading on Sundays has increased by 6 per cent in the past year, says the survey report for international property consultants Healey and Baker. Of the top 100 cities and towns, 97 per cent have more than 10 per cent of their shops open. But the The average increase of profits was just over 1 per cent for the shops that open, while 45 per cent of retailers trading on Sunday reported that they had seen no additional profit at all.