Sunday shopping may be a godsend | Bundaberg News | Local News in Bundaberg

Zarraffa's Coffee supervisor Jeff Baldwin hopes that other outlets will follow suit and open for Sunday trading.

Kallee Buchanan

FINDING the time to organise food shopping along with the thousand other things that mum and businesswoman Melodee Miller does every week, takes more than a to-do list or two.

But if she could influence the powers that govern Sunday trading laws, she would put opening shops all weekend at the top of their priorities.

Instead of her kids running up and down the aisles, Mrs Miller would be able to relish a trip to the shops alone on a Sunday, something she enjoyed when living on the Sunshine Coast.

"My husband would be home to watch the kids it would be 10 times faster," she said.

But Cast's IGA owner Kevin Cast does not share Mrs Miller's enthusiasm for the proposal that would allow Woolworths at Bargara Central Shopping Centre to open from 9am to 6pm on a Sunday, and as late as 9pm during the week. "Bargara is adequately catered for, particularly as we are in the process of extending our store by a third," Mr Cast said.

He said he felt the application by the National Retailers Association (NRA) would only affect one store, and it was an attack on his business.

"I think they'll find a lot of objections from the independent operators in Bundaberg as well it's just a flagrant grab at trying to get (sales)," he said Mr Cast warned Sunday trading could have a domino effect on retailers soon spreading to Bundaberg.

"The whole area does not need the chain stores because if it's one, it'll be the rest," he said.

"In my opinion the council should oppose it because if they get Bargara, they'll go after Bundaberg."

One business operator, Kath Baldwin from the newly-opened Zarraffa's Coffee, welcomed the Sunday trading change. "We do a steady trade on a Sunday I'd be happier if all the little shops were full," she said.

She said more businesses might be encouraged to open in the centre if Sunday trade attracted customers.

Another who welcomes competition is division five Bundaberg Regional Councillor Greg Barnes, who met with the NRA when they last visited Bargara four or five years ago.

"I supported Sunday trading and I still do," Cr Barnes said.

"Bargara's a booming tourist town and tourists come here and they expect places to be open on a Sunday."

The NRA is counting on that expectation for its proposal, which covers Bargara and Mission Beach, to be successful when it goes before the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission "In Queensland, around 70% of our population enjoy access to seven-day trading," NRA executive director Gary Black said.

"As a principle, the Sunday trading is an amenity and a convenience which ought to be enjoyed by everyone."

He said the application came from the NRA, and while supported by Woolworths, it was not part of a strategy to open up areas for Sunday trading.