morrisons shopping aisle pick up bins

Morrisons has confirmed it is to extend store opening hours

Morrisons has confirmed plans to extend the opening hours at many of its stores, as it looks to address its falling sales.

The Grocer revealed in June that longer opening hours were part of a raft of measures Morrisons was introducing to make the shopping journey easier for its customers. These included removing locks from its trolleys, the redesign of over 277 stores, refurbs of in-store cafes, the building of new petrol stations, upgrades to baby change and toilet facilities and the removal of parking meters.

The retailer said this week it was introducing an extra 1,600 hours of trading a week – with 230 stores moving to between 6am and 11pm.

Typical opening hours for Morrisons stores are 8am to 9pm. The Grocer understands the plan is to match up better to rivals on a local basis.

Morrisons cited new research it had commissioned from YouGov, which revealed 20% of shoppers now usually visit a store between 6am and 9am or 8pm and 11pm. The key reasons for this were a preference for quieter times, better suitiing their working hours or putting children to bed before visiting a store.

“Modern family life, flexible working hours and busy schedules mean customers want to shop earlier and later,” said Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips.

“The extension of our opening hours is one of many changes we are making to make shopping trips easier at our stores.”