One of the things that I disliked about living in London was the fact that you could go shopping on a Sunday.

The trouble with this was that my wife loves to shop. Unless I could come up with something else for us to do, I would often find myself spending the whole weekend fighting the crowds on Oxford Street or being dragged through every clothing store on the King's Road. While I could occasionally come up for air amid the bookshelves of a Borders or among the DVDs and computer games in HMV, it was never for long enough to make these expeditions a pleasurable experience.

It was, then, something of a blessing to move to Bermuda and get away from this. Suddenly, Saturday was the only day of the weekend that my wife could haul me round the stores. Mercifully, even then her opportunities were limited by the fact that Bermuda has fewer shops and less choice than London. Before I moved here I was certain that this would be one of the things that I would miss about the UK. After I arrived I thought that perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

I still don't really miss being able to shop in Hamilton on a Sunday. The only time that I did was when my wife and I were furnishing our new apartment. Only having a Saturday to look for the bed, sofa, television, sideboard, desk, curtains, lamps, rugs and tables that we needed proved frustratingly restrictive.

Nonetheless, I'm glad that the Government has decided to relax the rules preventing stores opening on Sundays and public holidays. Increasingly, consumers are demanding a higher quality, more convenient service from the businesses that serve them; as a major international business centre, Bermuda's companies cannot expect to be exempt from this trend.

Not all retailers seem happy about the move, however. Although the Chamber of Commerce has been lobbying the Government to allow Sunday trading for several years, an article in last Friday's Bermuda Sun suggested that many stores aren't interested in exercising their new rights unless competition forces them to do so.

They seem to have two reasons. The first is that it would have a detrimental effect on the home lives of their workers and their families. Clearly care must be taken to avoid this. No one who does not want to work on Sundays should be made to do so; Finance Minister Paula Cox made it clear that amendments would be made to the Public Holidays Act to ensure this. However some staff may welcome the opportunity to earn more money by working on these days, particularly if they were also able to take another day of the week off in lieu.

The second is that it may not be economic, as it would simply result in six days worth of sales being spread over seven days. This assumes that shoppers have a finite appetite and that this is already being satisfied. For purchases that are made based on need, this may be true. However long the store stays open, if you need a new washing machine you're only likely to buy one. However, many of our purchases are made on impulse, while browsing. The longer the stores are open, the greater the opportunity for these kinds of purchases to be made. The pile of unread books, unwatched DVDs and unplayed computer games that I amassed during my London shopping sprees attest to that.

This is particularly true of the shops that serve Bermuda's tourists. When you're a tourist, you rarely need to buy anything. All of your spending is discretionary. One of Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown's new tourism goals is to increase per person visitor spending by seven percent. Encouraging all shops which cater to tourists to open on Sundays may be one of the best ways to achieve this.

Tourists aren't the only group that must be hoping the retailers decide to exercise their newly-awarded freedoms. Seven percent of Bermuda's residents are Seventh-Day Adventists. For them, and Bermuda's small Jewish community, Saturday is their traditional day of rest.

However there's one ban on Sunday trading that still shows no sign of being relaxed.

Why can I go to my local grocery store on a Sunday and buy a bottle of coke, but not a bottle of wine? Banning the sale of alcohol on Sundays has no justification in a supposedly secular society.

Sunday trading was first allowed in the UK over ten years ago. Many of the concerns that are being voiced in Bermuda now were also raised in the UK then.

Yet a successful balance was struck between the rights of shop workers and the freedoms of retailers and consumers. Despite the apparent reluctance of some stores and shop workers to embrace Sunday trading, the same seems likely to happen here.

Phillip Wells' weblog is www.limeyinbermuda.com