The shops which will be staying open late on the run-up to Christmas

Hundreds of shops will be revising their opening hours in the days ahead of Christmas once the lockdown ends.

Supermarkets and retailers are shaking up their opening hours including Aldi, Primark and M&S. 

The retailers are ensuring people can get their Christmas shopping ahead of the big day and to ensure social distancing is possible. 

M&S will be staying open until midnight and Aldi will be open until 11pm from December 21st to December 23rd.

Last year, M&S opened just 15 of its branches until midnight. This year, the chain has agreed to open 400 out of its 900 for longer.

Sacha Berendji, M&S’s Retail, operations and property director said: “We want our customers to be able to shop with confidence this Christmas, which means supporting social distancing in our stores and minimal queueing outside as the weather gets colder.

“To help with this, we’ll be operating our longest ever opening hours just before Christmas.

“Along with the wider industry, we continue to ask for Sunday trading hours to be extended to help us increase our capacity to serve everyone safely this festive season.”

Aldi is set to enable trade until 11pm in most stores from December 21st to December 23rd. Stores will shut at 6pm on December 24th and remain closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Waitrose will allow smaller stores to stay open until 11pm from December 21st to December 23rd. Larger branches will close at 10pm. Stores will close at 6pm on Christmas Even and remain closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Meanwhile, Primark is still in hopes to extend operating hours when non-essential retail is allowed again.

A spokeswoman for Primark said: “Associated British Foods Plc are calling for extended trading hours for Primark stores once they re-open in December.”