Independent retailers have unanimously called on the government to prosecute the major multiples if they open 30 minutes early for so-called browsing on Sundays in the run up to Christmas. In a straw poll taken by The Grocer this week, the independent sector called on trading standards officers to prosecute any multiples who let the public into their stores a minute before the legal Sunday opening time of 10am for stores of more than 3,000 sq ft. The overwhelming view from the c-store sector was that the multiples are testing the resolve of government and local authorities in the belief that, if they can get away with bending the Sunday trading regulations, they will eventually be able to ignore them completely. All the retailers polled said the Association of Convenience Stores must continue to fight against further multiple infiltration of the Sunday regulations. Nisa retailer Stuart Hill, a member of the ACS national council who runs a store in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said: "The multiples will stop at nothing to exploit the law. They must be stopped. "If they simply wanted to let shoppers in to browse they would have all the trolleys chained up outside and then make their customers go back outside after the half hour browsing time. But, no, they let people in 30 minutes early to fill up their trolleys and, although no money is changing hands they are, to my way of thinking, actually trading." Hill believed the multiples were desperate to have the freedom to trade all day on Sundays and said the browsing tactic was a way of testing the resolve of those who are paid to enforce the existing laws. Ravinder Manku, who runs the Premier Select & Save store in Lambourne, Berkshire, echoed Hill when he said: "The Sunday trading law is an Act of Parliament and trading standards officers have a duty to enforce it. "Independent retailers are a soft target for the law enforcers who appear to lack the bottle to tackle those multiples who are architects of legal manipulation." Dan Raj, who runs a Costcutter store in Southend, was another who said it was imperative that the browsing tactic must be stopped in its tracks. He added: "The Sunday trading laws state clearly that stores of more than 3,000 sq ft cannot open until 10am. Our Sunday sales were heavily dented when the multiples won the right to trade on the Sabbath. If they are allowed to extend their Sunday hours it will further hit the small trader." {{GROCER CLUB }}