Sunday trading in England and Wales was not generally permitted until 1994. This meant that shops such as department stores and supermarkets were not able to open legally. A number of specialist outlets were able to open legally, and these included garden centres, small "corner" or family run shops, and chemists. There was opposition to the legal reform from the campaign known as Keep Sunday special .
Several large outlets challenged the legal ruling in force before 1994 by opening on Sundays, and the eventual outcome was that supermarkets and department stores are now able to open for up to 6 hours on Sunday, typically from 10am to 4pm. There are still some constraints on what can be sold (for example, alcoholic drinks), and Christmas Day and Easter Sunday have been excluded as trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter.
The details of the changes to the legislation are included in the Sunday Trading Act 1994
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