Foodstuffs’ New World supermarkets in Wānaka have sparked controversy by opting to keep their doors open throughout the Easter weekend, flouting trading regulations that require closure on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Despite previous fines for similar infractions, both New World Wānaka and New World Three Parks went ahead with regular trading hours.
The decision, attributed to the absence of an official exemption for Wānaka under the Shop Trading Hours Act, has reignited debates over the necessity and fairness of Easter trading laws. Foodstuffs defended its stance, citing the influx of visitors expected for the Warbirds Over Wānaka airshow and the desire to provide convenience for both locals and tourists during the holiday period.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has previously ‘admonished’ the stores for disregarding warnings and legal obligations, according to a report in state media outlet RNZ.
While the Wānaka Business Chamber acknowledges the economic benefits of increased trade, the episode underscored the need for a thorough re-evaluation of Easter trading regulations. The Chamber contends that evolving circumstances, including the resurgence of events like Warbirds Over Wānaka, warrant a ‘fresh look’ at existing laws to ensure they remain relevant and fair to businesses and consumers alike.
In a recent video message Act Party leader David Seymour said the Easter trading laws were ‘totally nuts’
‘It’s time we moved on as a country. Easter is a very important time to a group of New Zealanders, but it’s also a time a lot of people like to go out with their friends and just have a meal and a drink… We want a New Zealand where that kind of basic freedom is normal.’
Last week Act MP Cameron Luxton said his member’s bill to abolish the Easter trading laws was in the parliament ballot. ‘In short, if you want to open, you’ll have the freedom to do so. However, it retains the existing employee protections that apply on Easter Sunday and extends these protections to Good Friday,’ said Luxton in a press release.
Reaction to Seymour’s video was mixed, though the majority of commenters tended to support the status quo, to give workers time with their families
It’s a bad day to go to the pub. But it shouldn’t be.@dbseymour explains: pic.twitter.com/ILBbJgSWhB
— ACT New Zealand (@actparty) March 28, 2024
– OFFS when I was young nothing opened at the weekend and society was a lot better for it. Family time Seymour, not that you’d know about that as who would want to breed with you.
– Why are workers allowed zero days off?!
– Bar staff deserve a couple of guaranteed days off with their family and friends each year.
– Strange logic … a day off for folks to relax and enjoy a drink with friends so long as the bar and restaurant staff are required to turn up and work? Bizarre. 😏
– Petty, angry & sad little man denying people a decent rest. There are 362 out of 365 trading days in a year.
– Easter trading is a hangover from a bygone era when religion was pervasive. I’m not stopping anyone from going to church; why do they want to stop me from buying a beer?
– Yeah these laws are ridiculous. I just had a burger+beer, and when I wanted to order another beer, I was told I need to order another meal.
– Degenerate.
– I’m not even religious and I’m fine with there being days in the year when we observe the Christian values of the holidays we take. This isn’t Labour Day or some other meaningless holiday. We are an historically Christian nation, observe their holidays with respect.
– You need to get out more. Wellington CBD was going OFF. Heaps of families out walking, heaps of places to eat or just sit. $5 to bus/train to Kapiti Coast – hundreds of people on my one, having a blast. None of us needed a pub.
– You clearly have not heard – or you think you know better – Richard Branson’s well known quote about staff. Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you look after your employees they will look after the clients.
– To think that we can’t cope for 3 and a half days a year makes you really wonder about mankind.
Yeah, we’ve “moved on” from honouring the Lord during the most important 3 days of Christianity (in actuality FAR more important than Christmas).
Bring on the drinking and gambling and whoring! Bring on the pride parades and debauchery! Screw all the traditions that made our nations what they are today, we’ve “moved on”.
Today’s “conservatives” conserve nothing. All Seymour cares about is helping his donors and special interests turn NZ into another England through immigration. All those “new kiwis” they plan to bring in don’t want to live in an ethnically Christian society, but they sure DO want those economic benefits though 👍.
What a spineless little weasel you are, David.
With the extra people here in Wanaka the Catholic Church was packed this morning, which shows there is still a reasonable Christian following.
Now I can’t quite remember what parliamentary statement Jabcinda “updated”, but the end result was the removal of the word God from it. Merry Christmas replaced by happy holidays.
When inherently we have been been a Christian nation and it is part of historical NZ, what possibly could be the reason for such removal? (Rhetoric)
And what happens to the fabric of society and its moral compass when God has been removed????? (Rhetoric)
When was the last time you heard anyone refer to this country as Godzone?
“God’s Own Country – Definition: Often abbreviated to Godzone or less often Godzown, it is a phrase that has been used for more than 100 years by New Zealanders to describe their homeland. God’s Own Country as a phrase was often used and popularised by New Zealand’s longest serving prime minister, Richard John Seddon.”
Time to move on? It has only been a mere two thousand years that we have been celebrating the birth of Christ .
I do not for one moment believe that God has left this place, but he sure is being systematically remove form your everyday lives
They can afford the fines,
There nasty greedflation after ripping off kiwis every other day
The public can fix this overnight boycott them.
This is indicative of how these mega corporations have gone rogue.
Blackrock holds our retirement investments by the balls and are calling the shots, pushing their climate fraud and transhumanist agenda using our debt as a leaner.
They are psychopathic criminals holding us all to ransom while nzgovtcorp obeys like little servants.
This is treasonous in itself. Unelected foreign organisations are calling the shots in OUR country.
Have we had enough yet or will it take another round of killshots to drive it home?
OK, that’s it (and from what I hear within my community it’s the same for others): New World has defied the law on the land.
Who the hell do they think they are?
Therefore we will BOYCOTT not only New World, but the whole Foodstuff imperium, which includes also Pak n’ Save and Four Square.
We take our business to the ‘competition’, i.e. Countdown and Woolworths.
We don’t buy much at the SM, but if more people join in, THEY will feel it.
Our main grocery go-to is local shops and markets. Support your local small businesses and your local producers, even if it may cost you a little bit more, but at least you get REAL and healthy produce, and not some spray toxic plastic industrialised stuff.
On top of that, your $$$ stay in the local community, a fact universally overlooked.
And pay cash only!
Stuff Foodstuff and stuff supermarkets.