Holiday weekend trading: Who can open, and when?
Confused about what’s open over Easter? You’re not alone.
By law, all shops must close for 31⁄2 days each year – Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and until 1pm on Anzac Day.
However, Easter Sunday is the only one of these holidays which is not an actual public holiday. Throw in regional variations about which retailers can open, and different rules for Good Friday and Easter Monday, and it’s no wonder there is confusion.
In 2016, responsibility for setting Easter trading hours was passed from central government to local bodies, meaning councils could decide whether retailers could open on Easter Sunday. Before that, only shops with exceptions – like dairies, service stations and pharmacies – were allowed to trade.
While most councils have created bylaws allowing retailers to open, Wellington, Auckland and other major centres have chosen not to, meaning thousands of shops will remain shut tomorrow.
Who can open?
Hardly anyone on Good Friday, with even the hospitality industry limited in what it can do over the weekend. Only those hospitality businesses serving food can open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so bars and nightclubs have to close at midnight on Thursday and Saturday.
The majority of retail outlets also have to close on Good Friday. However, all shops in 44 regions around the country can open on Easter Sunday.
Of those that are allowed to trade, some might choose to open, and others might not. And in the few regions where councils have not allowed stores to open, there are some exceptions.
Those exceptions, which apply to all 31⁄2 restricted trading days, are dairies (which can only sell food, drink, household items, and personal items); service stations (which can only sell food, drink, household items, personal items, fuel, oil, car parts and accessories); takeaway bars; restaurants; cafe´s (which can only sell prepared or cooked food, ready to be eaten immediately in the form in which it is sold); duty-free stores; shops providing services but not selling goods (such as cinemas or hairdressers); real estate agencies; pharmacies; garden centres (Easter Sunday only); a shop at any public transport terminal or station (can only sell books, magazines and newspapers, or duty-free items and souvenirs, or food that has been cooked or prepared and is ready to be eaten); a shop where an exhibition or show is taking place, including markets, craft shows and stalls (but the shop must be within the premises of the exhibition or show. This means the building or location – it doesn’t include a street which has been closed for the event); or a shop primarily selling only souvenirs (a souvenir is defined as being connected to a New Zealand place or New Zealand culture).
What about the surcharge?
Surcharges are mostly used by the hospitality sector – and, as it stands, they can be applied on any day of the year.
However, it is common practice for traders to only apply a surcharge on public holidays, to offset the cost of paying staff higher wages on those days.
According to the Commerce Commission, if a surcharge is applied, it has to be clearly disclosed, and the reasons cannot mislead customers.
The only public holidays during the Easter period are Good Friday and Easter Monday. Saturday and Sunday are not public holidays. To add a surcharge, shop owners need to inform the customers, verbally or by way of a clear, prominent sign, before the transaction starts.