Once it was agreed that smaller grocery stores could open if they were under a certain size, then it was inevitable that the larger grocers would want to open. It is almost always impossible to operate laws which apply to one section of a community but not to another.

Selling groceries is a highly competitive business, perhaps the most competitive in Bermuda, and every dollar counts. It would seem that 18 smaller stores are already opening on Sundays even though we doubt the estimate that they are taking $10 million a year in grocery business.

Once again we have the antique spectacle of Government issuing licences to sin. We supposedly live in a free market system yet we issue licences which might have made some sense in the Victorian era but make very little sense today. If grocery stores want to open on Sundays or at 2 a.m. on Tuesdays or 24 hours a day then it is a matter between them and their staff and their customers. If the staff do not want to work and the customers do not come, then that too is a problem for the grocers. When they open should be market driven and not Government controlled.

It would be difficult to convince anyone that it is acceptable to go to the movies, play football, run in races and drink in bars and clubs, on Sunday, but, at that same time, that it is not acceptable to buy groceries, or clothes, for that matter, on Sunday. Someone will argue that most of these grocery stores sell liquor. True, but then so do the open bars and clubs.

It seems to us that this is an area of Government control which is totally unnecessary. The licences may also be something of a joke if the big grocers are correct and some of the small businesses are opening without a permit.

Once again we may have a situation where non-enforcement of the law brings the law into disrepute and Bermuda already has too many unenforced laws.

The spokesman for one major supermarket chain has said, "People want to shop at times convenient to their work week and lifestyle. We want to meet that demand.'' There is no good reason in 1995 why a business should not be able to meet the demands of its customers even though we think that the demands to open supermarkets have arisen more from cash than custom.

Many Bermudian businesses are way behind the times in meeting the needs of their customers. Whole families now work and, basically, they work from 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m. That is the basic time businesses are open, the very time when their customers are supposed to be at work.

Take Bermuda's two major banks as an example. Heaven only knows how many hours are lost to Bermuda's businesses while their employees stand in bank lines.

And, despite the lines and large profits, the banks operate hours which please themselves but not the customers. Yet bank competition is such in other countries now that some banks pay customers by the minute if they have to stand in bank lines for more than five minutes. They also have "customer friendly hours'' like 8 a.m. opening and 8 p.m. closing, and pay interest on your chequing account.

It's time now for Bermuda to face a new century. Get with it. It's a competitive world. People cook and eat on Sundays.