Abstract:

The paper studies how the deregulation of Sunday trading changed opening hours and shopping habits. In Sweden, shop opening hours were deregulated in 1972. The evidence presented in this paper shows that in Sweden, Sunday opening has become common especially among grocery stores. Furthermore, evidence on shopping habits in Sweden suggests that on Sundays consumers shop predominantly for groceries. Deregulation of Sunday trading is often linked with recreational shopping, but the evidence presented in this paper gave little support for these views.