Backwards, archaic and punitive - that's how Easter trading laws are being described.
Just as New Zealand opens up to Aussies and welcomes fewer restrictions under the orange traffic light system, another set of restrictions comes into play.
Christchurch's Riverside Market is rolling out all the stops to welcome its customers this Easter.
It's classed as a tourist destination so it's open for trading, with the exception of three bars that are restricted by the Shop Trading Hours Act.
"We've asked if they do have food as part of their offering, whether they could open, but we've been told they can't even though they're inside the market building with all the takeaway options," Riverside Market's general manager Rachel Gould says.
It's a law Labour MP Kieran McAnulty is trying to change.
"Any other day of the year the alcohol is licenced on the basis of health but on Easter, it's licenced on the basis of religion and that doesn't make sense to me," McAnulty says.
He says the restrictions encourage stockpiling.
"You shouldn't have to buy a roast meal to have a pint on Easter Sunday," McAnulty says.
Under the Shop Trading Hours Act, on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, most shops have to close unless they meet a set of conditions, they have an area exemption, or their local council has adopted an Easter trading policy.
"I think as a society we've moved past these religious-based holidays," Christchurch City Councillor James Gough says.
The orange traffic light is a reprieve for small businesses but during one of the busiest times of the year, many can't open to reap the benefit.
"It's sort of like one step forward two steps back," Gough says. "You've got these two public holidays with these punitive, archaic rules that are in place after they have already been putting up with plenty of rules over this COVID time."
Rules are something people are growing tired of.
"If employers want to open and they've got employees who want to work then they should be able to," one local said.
"I think that all shops should be open any time over Easter because in this day and age they need the income and they need the work," another said.
Retail NZ says it doesn't make sense to ban shopping on Easter Sunday because it isn't actually a public holiday.
"It's not a ban on working there will be shops who have their teams instore doing stocktake or other work on Sunday it's just that they're not allowed to open their doors to the public," Retail NZ CEO Greg Harford says.
They can do that on Monday.
