So why do big department stores (Big W and Target, for example) and supermarkets in suburbia have to shut earlier than in other parts of Brisbane? The answer is rather offensive.

The rationale is that tourists from modern cities have come to expect extended trading hours. Consequently, where they go, so too goes (modestly) later trading.

The result is a series of state-ordained “tourist areas” considered more important to the image of Brisbane than the suburban enclaves of hillbillies presumed to know no better of how others live.

It's pretty shitty. Stores shutting at 6 pm on a Sunday is so incredibly restrictive.

And sure, you can point to the fact that it's just the big chains that are restricted in this way, and all the niche specialist stores can be open as long as they want, and yet they don't!

But think about it, how many niche stores are going to stay open when the major draw to the centre or street that they're located on has already shut? If you're a niche store, you're looking at either people who have come to the store specifically to go to you, or people who walk into your store because they were walking past it on their way to something else. And that entire second group disappears entirely if the supermarkets are forced shut, while the first group is unaffected because they'll probably adapt to going at a different time.