The Farmer Joe supermarket chain will only open its Vaitele and Saleimoa retail outlets on Sundays for the sake of its customers.

The company initially expressed concern that the limited 3-6pm trading hours on Sunday would cost them more and they will review their operations and customer response for last Sunday.

The engagement of over 100 staff to work during the three hours of trading was a major concern for the retail group. 

But the supermarket Manager, AJ Cowley, in response to email queries sent by the Samoa Observer, said they will stick to just opening two retail outlets like last Sunday.

"It was a lot of effort for our teams," he said. "To be frank, it takes a lot of preparation, time , logistics and cost to open our stores which makes this three hours opening window shorter compared to those factors.

"But again (we) will only open two stores, Vaitele and Saleimoa, to maintain the quality service for Samoa while ensuring we can sustain keeping open with the increased costs now for us with shortened hours and the new three hours for Sunday.”

The 3-6pm trading hours for supermarkets on Sundays is part of the revised state of emergency (S.O.E.) orders that were announced by the Government last week.

The S.O.E. orders also stipulated the closure of all markets at Vaitele, Taufusi, Savalalo, Fugalei and Salelologa on Sunday. These included the fish markets at Savalalo, Vaigaga, Fasito’o Uta, Afega and other roadside fish selling.