Longer opening hours come into force

WITH Easter approaching the holiday timetable for shops was enforced yesterday, with shops open on April 1 for the first time. The Easter shopping hours will end on April 10.
During this 10-day period, shops will be able to stay open until 8.30pm, except on Good Friday when they will close by 6.30pm and on Easter Saturday when they will close their doors to shoppers at 2pm.

Once the Easter period is over the new summer shopping hours will then kick in. Shops will remain open until 8.30pm with the new summer schedule, which will last until October 31. On Wednesdays, however, shops will have to close by 2pm, while on Saturdays they will close at the later time of 5pm. On Fridays, shop owners will have the option to serve customers until 9pm.

Shoppers may be pleased with the new schedule, giving them more time to buy, but not everyone is equally happy.

The General Secretary of POVEK, Melios Georgiou, protested against the recent changes made to the hours for shops in tourist areas, where they will be open for over 12 hours a day under new directives from Labour Minister Makis Keravnos.

Georgiou said some of the shops considered to be in the tourist areas had never once catered to tourists, yet they had to remain open the same long hours, until 11pm including Sundays in the Larnaca, Paralimni, Ayia Napa and Paphos tourist areas.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.