As RACHEL FLINT highlights the growing number of empty units littering Chester’s city centre retail scene, JO HENWOOD discovers that shoppers are not exactly flocking to take advantage of relaxed Sunday trading laws during the Olympics

TEAM GB may have been slow off the mark on the medal table but Team Chester Shopper have barely qualified for the Olympic Sundays extended shopping hours bonanza.

Heading into town last Sunday, at 4.45pm, just after Lizzie Armitstead had taken silver in the women’s road race, I found a few stragglers walking up Eastgate Street but the city was certainly not abuzz with Olympic-sized shopping frenzy.

The Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill was given Royal Assent on May 1, meaning that shops can now open for longer than the legal six hours on a Sunday.

Last Sunday was the second of eight consecutive weeks of the relaxation of the rule.

At 5pm Debenhams was dead. I walked the three floors in search of customers and accidently bumped into three in ladies fashions. I had the cookshop to myself bar a young sales assistant twiddling his thumbs.

A phone call to the Debenhams press office elicited no response to my question of whether the store was committed to the extended opening times until September 9.

In fact, no store was prepared to go on the record about numbers of increased shoppers, if any, but all seem set to continue to open for the entire eight weeks.

A Tesco spokesperson said: "We listened to what our customers and our staff told us about Sunday opening hours during the Games. They wanted to see more flexibility, and have the added convenience of shopping before or after the sporting action. And we’ve seen customers around the country, including in Chester, taking advantage of those longer opening hours.”

Marks & Spencer spokesperson Elizabeth Murphy confirmed that all employees are given the option to opt out of Sunday working and that the Olympic Sundays are no different.

One surprise success on Sunday was at Jones Bootmaker on Eastgate Street. There were so many customers in the small shoe shop that I even gave up trying to get served and the tills were still ringing as the city’s famous Eastgate Clock neared 6pm.

Debra Davies said: “Our Sunday manager Lilian Vernon said that it was very busy in that last hour.”