Customs and regulations for (times that shops are open) vary from country to country.
United Kingdom
In Britain, most retail shops are generally open 6 or 7 days a week.
Typical opening times are:
Mondays - Saturdays 9am to 5:30pm Some shopping centres stay open until 8pm or later
Sunday- 10am to 4pm (or 11am to 5pm) Sunday shopping has become popular in recent years and most large shops in towns are open for business. Shops in England Wales and Northern Ireland are only allowed to trade for 6 hours on Sundays. In Scotland, in theory, Sunday is the same as any other day although in practice many shops do not open at all or just open for four hours in smaller towns.
Large supermarkets are open for 24 hours except for Sundays. Again Scottish legislation allows true 24-7 trading and the large chains do not close at all.
Many supermarkets and superstores otherwise open from 8am until 10pm from Mondays to Saturdays and 10am to 4pm (or 11am to 5pm) on Sundays.
Ireland
Standard opening hours are:
Monday - Wednesday, Saturday:
* 08:00/09:00 - 17:30/18:30
Thursday - Friday:
* 08:00/09:00 - 20:00/21:00/22:00
Sunday:
* 10:00/11:00 - 17:00/18:00/19:00
Many supermarkets are open 24 hours, or have longer opening hours (eg. 08:00 - 22:00).
Large shopping centres are typically open longer hours everyday (eg. 09:00 - 21:00/22:00 weekdays, 09:00 - 19:00 Saturdays, 10:00 - 19:00 Sundays).
In the two weeks running up to Christmas, it is common for many shops to have extended opening hours; some may operate 24 hours a day right until midnight on Christmas Eve.
Most shops in smaller towns don't open at all on Sundays. Almost all shops are closed on Christmas Day, though most are open on other holidays. Off Licenses (liquor stores) are closed (by law) on Good Friday as well, though it is thought this law will change soon.
Convienience stores, petrol stations and some chemists (drugstores) are normally open from early morning (05:00/06:00/07:00) until late night (22:00/23:00/00:00), or often 24 hours. andnew years day is also sunday hours.
United States
In the U.S., shopping hours vary widely. Key variables are the size of the metropolitan area, the type of store, and the size of the store. In major metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles, California, many drugstores and supermarkets are routinely open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, while department stores, shopping centers and most other large retailers are open from 10 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week, and often with shorter hours on Sundays (generally 11 AM or 12 noon to 5 or 6 PM). On holidays, the tendency is to remain open (with the exception of the most important holidays like Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day where stores are generally closed), often maintaining normal hours for that day.
Most locations of the country's largest retailer, Wal-Mart (especially its hypermarkets), are open continuously except on Christmas Day, unless local laws dictate otherwise. Other hypermarket chains tend to follow Wal-Mart's lead, although not always remaining open around the clock (hours such as 7 AM to 11 PM are common). Boutiques and smaller shops often close early at 5 or 6 PM (occasionally with one late evening, usually Thursday or Friday), and may be closed one or two days per week (most often Sunday).
In many smaller cities and rural towns, there are strong religious traditions that cause most local retailers to stay closed on Sunday, and the few that are open may have reduced hours. However, many of the same communities will have at least one Wal-Mart that is open around the clock.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands each town has the evening of either Thursday or Friday designated as . In most cases it is Thursday. Towns for which it is Friday include:
Bergen op Zoom
Delft
Eindhoven
Oegstgeest
Rotterdam
On regular evenings most shops close at 6 p.m., but supermarkets often at 8 or 9, sometimes 10 p.m. Many towns have one or more little supermarkets that are open until later in the evening, occasionally all night. A regular size supermarket that is open until midnight seven days a week is Food Village at Schiphol Airport (before customs, hence not only for air travellers).
Shopping days
In some countries most shops are closed on Sundays. In Islamic countries some shops are closed on Fridays. In Israel many shops are closed on Friday evening and Saturday during daytime.
Each state in Australia sets its own standard trading hours, but in most of the country the shops are open seven days a week for at least part of the day.
For some shops and other businesses Christmas Day is the only day in the year that they are closed.
In the US a shop may often be open all days of the year except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day (most often - virtually everything closes on that day in virtually all communities), and Easter Sunday, although in smaller communities many stores will be closed on all Sundays.
Ramadan
In Islamic countries shops may have special opening hours during Ramadan.
Australia
The two main supermarkets Woolworths and Coles generally open between 6am and midnight 7days a week. Some inner-city stores may operate 24hrs except public holidays and stores in some states have restricted hours on sundays. Western Australia has the most restricitve trading hours, with the big supermarket chains only allowed to be open between 9:00am-6:00pm Mon-Fri, 9:00am-9:00pm Thursday and 8:00am-5:00pm Saturday. An exception to this is Independent Supermarkets or stores/businesses that employ a small amount of people, which restrictions are then relaxed.