I love it here, but I need a rant...

No, you are thinking of Homesickness & Hard Times, under Expat Life, which is supposed to be solely messages of support etc - free from opposition. People are free to disagree in the Airing Cupboard, as long as they refrain from personal attacks.

I'm not sure I see the point, then.  There's little that's more annoying when you're having a good old rant than someone raising an eyebrow and saying, "Well, actually, I think you'll find..."

Of course I was aware that there are laws limiting opening times, but I'm with camoscoto: So what?  9-5 for shopkeepers was fine when there was only one shopkeeper per shop, and when only one member of a family worked so the other could do the shopping during the day.  However, times have changed and retail operations should change with them.  Obviously I don't think retail workers should be overworked, but come on, think creatively.  Open later, hire more staff, take turns so each employee works one late night a week, there are always solutions and ways of meeting the customers' needs (surely the main priority of customer service based businesses?) while still keeping employees' hours reasonable.  Nearly every other country in the developed world keeps their shops open later, while still managing not to abuse their employees.  I teach students from all over the world, and one thing that every single one of them mentions as a negative aspect to the UK is how early things close.  If they can manage it, why can't we?   

...I teach students from all over the world, and one thing that every single one of them mentions as a negative aspect to the UK is how early things close.  If they can manage it, why can't we?   

Guess none of them have been to Switzerland or Germany, where nothing is open on a Sunday (except a couple expensive shops in train stations), and things close by 6pm during the week and long before 4pm on Saturdays.

Oh, and there's no noise allowed on Sundays and holidays, so forget catching up with your washing (forbidden), washing your car (also forbidden), cutting the grass (you guessed it, forbidden), or vacuum (yep, again, forbidden).

We've got it good here, although it could be better

I completely agree with your rant, I feel like I could have wrote it myself.

I have only been living here for a week, but I have been visiting for the past 2 years and I spent 3 months here over the summer, so while I am still adjusting, there are a lot of things that I dreaded dealing with before I officially moved.

I think the winters here are the worst, its always an awkward temperature, where you feel cold, but then you put on a coat and sweat. I feel like all the houses I visit here are always freezing, nobody seems to have central heat, and if they do have it they never turn it on. I always have to bring my slippers over to peoples houses, and usually I end up wearing my coat the whole time I'm in their house.

The dampness is driving me nuts, we washed our clothes on Monday and it is Thursday and my clothes are still damp. The room that the clothes are in constantly has condensation on the windows and it just bugs me, it's so damp in here. Even things that are completely dry, when I touch them, they feel wet to me. Our bed and our duvet in our room always feel damp when they are cold. I noticed this isn't so much of a problem in the summer though thankfully.

The shops thing is bad in my town too. We can walk into town but I just feel like every time we have to drive somewhere that is busy, we spend a half hour trying to park. Paying for parking just drives me nuts here, its so expensive and ridiculous. Where I lived in the US, no matter where you went, you never paid for parking to shop or eat at places. Maybe some places had meters but there was always free parking if you wanted to walk. Here you have to park a mile away and still pay for it. My fiance's friends live in Birmingham, and we often go to the Bullring, and its just constantly CRAZY busy there, its like every single weekend is as busy and crazy as the day before Christmas anywhere else. I always feel so overwhelmed and dizzy when I try to shop there, all the stores are overpacked with people, and trying to find a sales associate is incredibly difficult. I feel like I can never have a calm and pleasant shopping experience. It sucks too because our town is lacking any good high street stores.

My fiance and most of his friends and most people I know here work 9-5, full time, so it doesn't make sense to me that nothing is open past 430pm here. I don't work yet, and whenever I go to town in the day, the only people shopping are mothers and their babies, older citizens, or other people who don't work. So it completely makes sense why everything is always so crazy busy on the weekends, nobody can get anything done during the week.

Oh yeah... forgot about this!  The underground in Glasgow shuts at 6pm on a Sunday!  SIX!?!?!?!?!  That is completely ridiculous.  I just get a bus instead, but it is slower that way.  Honestly... 6pm?!

THIS THIS THIS. Ohhhhhh how I loathed the terrible hours! Once, I flew into Glasgow early on a Sunday morning and thought 'No, I won't get a taxi this time, I'll get the bus into town and get the underground' not remembering that the stupid thing doesn't start running on Sundays until later (what 10 or 11?). So there I am stood there with two suitcases outside the closed up Buchanan Street stop angry with myself for not remembering. Silly me for thinking the underground would be running at 8:30 am on a Sunday! I wound up getting a taxi from Central Station because I had no idea what the bus schedule was like and I was grumpy! 

The PATH train from where I live into Manhattan is normally 24hrs, but they've had a limited schedule from 5am - 10pm since the hurricane because they're still doing repairs. I can't tell you how many people are going absolutely nuts. I just keep thinking 'You people have no idea!' 

My fiance's friends live in Birmingham, and we often go to the Bullring, and its just constantly CRAZY busy there, its like every single weekend is as busy and crazy as the day before Christmas anywhere else. I always feel so overwhelmed and dizzy when I try to shop there, all the stores are overpacked with people, and trying to find a sales associate is incredibly difficult. I feel like I can never have a calm and pleasant shopping experience. It sucks too because our town is lacking any good high street stores.

Ugh. The Bullring. That place is always packed. I've been at 11 AM on a Tuesday and wanted to pull my hair out because of all the people. Not sure there's any solution to that problem.  

Guess none of them have been to Switzerland or Germany, where nothing is open on a Sunday (except a couple expensive shops in train stations), and things close by 6pm during the week and long before 4pm on Saturdays.

Actually some of them are, perhaps it's different in different parts of those countries?

6pm closing would be fine by me.  It's when things shut at 4.30-5 that I get annoyed.   Just stay open long enough for people who work normal office hours to run some errands after work.  Is that really such a huge concession to make?

I worked in retail for 13 years in the US.  I also went to college for 2 years in there (full load of classes), spent a couple years on the graveyard shift, ended my career there working a 5:30am - 1:00pm. 

I also cannot believe that stores manage to stay open when they have such limited hours.  I wish that the stored in our little village stayed open later for 2 reasons.  1-I oculd actually shop because by the time I get home from work, it's 6:35 and I can't shop and 2-I could really use a part time job...unfortunately since I already have a full-time job and places aren't open late I can't find one other than being an in-home carer which I am not even remotely qualified for or interested in.  That and this country seems to be really resistant to people working 2 jobs?  I tried applying a few times at our Morrison's and despite my 13 years of grocery store experience in nearly every area of the business, not interested at all.   

Oh, and I find no other activity as stressful as grocery shopping on Saturdays.  I would happily endure any other form of medieval torture than to walk in there on Saturday. 

I don't work yet (just got my FLR(M) last week) and my husband works from home fulltime, so the store opening hours really don't affect us. (We have found several stores that are open to 8 or 9 p.m., even in our poky little town.)  However, if I (or we both) were working out of the house until 5 p.m., it would be a BIG problem, as we'd be very limited, as the OP stated. We'd have to stop on the way home from work, which would make a long day even longer, or rush home, choke down some dinner and rush right back out again. So I completely agree, a bit of a shake up in the store hours would certainly benefit a lot of people.

Parking is always a pain. We know the places we prefer to take a train to, just to avoid the parking nightmare.

Mold or dampness (thank God and knock on wood) has not been a problem here.

My BIGGEST complaint about the UK is no closets. I mean, REALLY?  I can accept it in old houses, but new ones?? Our house is just 4 years old and there is only one small cupboard on the 3rd floor. I cannot for the life of me understand why they do this. No closets, so people have to buy big wardrobes and other storage units that take up the precious little floor space available in what are mostly tiny rooms. It makes no sense whatsoever. I am tired of looking at my vacuum sitting in my hallway because it has no "home". My winter coats and a couple floor length dresses have to hang behind doors. No matter how much I straighten up or try to find "homes" for things, I am still left with an overall untidy looking house. If one has one coat, two pair of shoes and one handbag, you're golden. Anything in "excess" and you're scratching your head where to put things. 

Many of the grocery stores do online shopping and delivery. We often did that in Worthing, and Brighton, and now in London.
It might be worth looking into - the delivery is free if you spend a certain amount.
We sometimes use Waitrose (for special things) and Sainsbury's (for most things) and sometimes Marks & Spencer (for other special things).
No parking, no lugging groceries, shop anytime.
And you can pick the delivery times within a window of a couple of hours.

I have baking soda, or bicarbonate of soda, in every closet, and in many corners of the flat, for moisture. I think it helps. It is no longer damp in my flat at all. (Although this flat was not very damp to begin with, just a little damp.)

FallGal, I'm with you on the closets. Fortunately, we have closets in all the bedrooms, but there are zero on the first floor, so I always have to drag the vacuum downstairs form its third floor home. Arg!

No closets, so people have to buy big wardrobes and other storage units that take up the precious little floor space available in what are mostly tiny rooms.

But wouldn't built-in units take up space as well? It just wouldn't be as obvious, I suppose, but they still have to go somewhere!

I have baking soda, or bicarbonate of soda, in every closet, and in many corners of the flat, for moisture. I think it helps. It is no longer damp in my flat at all. (Although this flat was not very damp to begin with, just a little damp.)

Before we had double-glazing, we had a problem with moisture collecting inside our windows and making everything damp. I bought these boxes of crystals from Lakeland to put on the window sills and they worked really well.

But wouldn't built-in units take up space as well? It just wouldn't be as obvious, I suppose, but they still have to go somewhere!

I wouldn't want built-in units. I want real closets. Yes, they take up space as well. Hmmmm.... I guess what I really want is BIGGER ROOMS!

Actually some of them are, perhaps it's different in different parts of those countries?

6pm closing would be fine by me.  It's when things shut at 4.30-5 that I get annoyed.   Just stay open long enough for people who work normal office hours to run some errands after work.  Is that really such a huge concession to make?

Opening hours are quite strict throughout Switzerland, Germany and France (I lived in Switzerland on the French and German borders for over 7 years). Perhaps they just have different expectations of English speaking countries? Regardless, the freedom I felt here to shop on a Sunday, or knowing at 10pm I could go get groceries, after over 7 years of restrictions was strange - sort of like buying your first drink at a bar when you're legal to do so. Or something

Well, you could all move to London.
Things certainly seem to stay open later in London, in general.
Not all shops, but plenty do.
I never have any issues with the shops keeping such limited hours here. (Although compared to Manhattan, my hometown, it still feels like everything closes early simply because they close at all - ha ha!)
And the trains run later. Not all night, but they do run long after 6pm on a Sunday.
And when the trains stop, there is a night bus. (I've never taken it - I heard rumours it exists tho...)

Of course, your rent will be tripled, and you will be too broke to use the shops - sigh.

We can't win! Ha ha! 

6pm closing would be fine by me.  It's when things shut at 4.30-5 that I get annoyed.   Just stay open long enough for people who work normal office hours to run some errands after work.  Is that really such a huge concession to make?

THIS!!! AMEN!