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Big shopping centres shun long trading

Santa will not be needed earlier than usual.

Many of Perth's major shopping centres including Westfield Carousel and Garden City will snub WA's new Christmas trading hours by opening at 9am rather than 7am.

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, Kmart and Target will make full use of the new trading hours, which allow big shops to trade from 7am to 9pm Monday to Friday, 7am to 6pm on Saturdays and 8am to 6pm on Sundays from Friday.

David Jones and Myer will trade longer at weekends but only open at 9am during the week until several days before Christmas Day, when they will open their doors at 8am.

Westfield's three WA shopping centres Carousel, Innaloo and Whitford City will open at 9am Monday to Saturday and 10am on Sundays until three days before Christmas.

But a Westfield spokeswoman said retailers in its centres, such as Coles and Woolworths, could open earlier if they wanted.

Karrinyup Shopping Centre and Garden City will trade from 8am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday from December 6 and 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday from December 15.

Claremont Quarter will open all possible hours from December 5 and the Galleria in Morley will trade from 7am to 9pm weekdays and 8am to 6pm at weekends.

The changes permit big stores to open an hour earlier than last year on Monday to Saturday and an hour later on Saturdays.

Announcing them last month, the State Government touched off a new war with small shopkeepers, who were already allowed to trade 24 hours a day if they had fewer than 25 employees.

WA Independent Grocers Association president John Cummings said the new trading hours would only benefit the supermarket chains.

Mr Cummings said shopping centres opening longer to accommodate big supermarkets would likely result in centre overheads going up, punishing smaller retailers.

"The cleaning and security staff will have to come in earlier, the air-conditioning for the centre will be turned on earlier, the lights will be turned on earlier and Coles won't be paying for it - all the other tenants will be," Mr Cummings said.

WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Deidre Willmott said the chamber, which had lobbied for 6am opening times, supported retailers having the choice to open at times that suited their customers.

"If, like Kmart in Eaton, retailers want to open 24 hours, they should be allowed to do so," Ms Willmott said.

Commerce Minister Michael Mischin said though the extension to trading hours for the Christmas period would ease the restrictions on retail trading at a very busy time of the year, it was not compulsory for businesses to open and close at those times.

Mr Mischin said feedback from consumers and businesses about the new Christmas trading hours would be assessed before any decisions were made on extensions for next year.