The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) has renewed its push for further deregulation of trading hours in Western Australia.

The CCI said research showed extending trading hours on Sundays has proved an overwhelming success since it was introduced two years ago.

The chamber's Deidre Willmott said a recent survey showed almost 60 per cent of the public now wanted the Government to fully deregulate shopping hours.

"Our survey has found that it has been incredibly popular with more than eight in 10 people having shopped on a Sunday and two-thirds saying they shop on a Sunday at least once a month."

Ms Willmott said the survey showed 66 per cent of people aged between 18 and 39 support full deregulation.

"What full deregulation means is that shops can open at a time that they choose. They can try new ideas, they can try new ways of working with their customers and their customers can respond," she said.

"It means that shops can open at times that suit their customers rather than times that have been mandated by the government through regulation."

Ms Willmott said the Government should now move to fully deregulate shopping hours.

"Well the State Government has introduced extended trading hours, late nights and Sundays, so I think they would be very pleased with the popularity of that move," she said.

"I would hope that they would look at full deregulation having seen how popular extended trading hours are and what the support is for full deregulation."

Retailers would 'go backwards' with extended hours, IGA says

Independent Grocers Association's president John Cummings said the CCI's own figures show extended Sunday trading hours were not that profitable for retailers.

"I don't think the figures they've put forward show any great success," he said.

"On their own figures an increase in retail trade in Western Australia has been around 2.5 per cent, which equates to $6.20 a week and it's through a whole pile of outlets including restaurants, cafes, hardware stores, building suppliers as well as retail.

"What does $6.20 equate to? Two cappuccinos, half an entree, a quarter of a main course in a restaurant.

"They're talking about retail sales perhaps going up on a Sunday by 2.5 per cent, while if a small business is to open on a Sunday their wages would increase by about 20 per cent for the week.

"At the same time retailers are being hit with rising energy costs in excess of 25 per cent, so clearly people would be going backwards."

Cafe manager 'expected a greater turnover, greater profit'

Victor Georgiou, who runs a cafe at Whitford City Shopping Centre, told 720 ABC Perth he had found it hard going.

"The reality is times are tough," he said.

"They're not what we expected - we expected a greater turnover and we expected a greater profit but as time went on, staffing and costs have gone up, landlords charge you extra for opening Sunday. It just all is added costs.

"We're achieving a little bit less than what we do over seven days than we used to do in six days."

Mr Georgiou backed full deregulation.

"The shop owners prefer you to stay open," he said.

"We want to open and we want to open all the time but the cost factor is very great and also the dynamics of the shopping centre because so many people are going broke or pulling out.

"If they deregulate the hours and we can open at 8am and we can get our breakfasts in, that would be a great help because we do very well on a Saturday morning."

One listener, Pam, said: "Sunday shopping is like a lottery - not open, open, or 11 to 2, 11 to 4, Monday, Friday varies, Target back to 9pm, Big W at 7. [It should be] all in or none."

No immediate plans for further deregulation

Commerce Minister Michael Mischin said while it had been a great success, there were no immediate plans for further deregulation.

"There's certainly flexibility now for those businesses that think they have an advantage trading on Sundays and extended hours over the week to do so, and I think it's been well-received by consumers," he said.

"I'm aware that CCI is pushing for a greater deregulation; I'm also aware of a study that's been recently provided to me by IGA which indicates the opposite so those are being analysed, and I'll find out what comes of that.

"But our policy has been made quite plain - we're going to polish up some of the rough edges, remove some anomalies, and make some incremental changes, but we have no plans in the immediate future for further radical deregulation."

Mr Mischin said work was continuing to iron out anomalies in the legislation.

"It is a difficult process," he said.

"Retail trading hours has been such an accretion or exemptions and rules over the course of generations that you start to correct one small anomaly, and you're very likely to create another one which causes disadvantage.

"There are a number of things I have noticed over the past year... certain exemptions or permissions I grant from time to time that become routine, and I'd be looking at trying to entrench those, and eliminating some of the red tape involved in that, and we're also looking at a number of other areas to try to loosen up some of the bizarre restrictions."

Mr Mischin said he hoped to see a shift before the end of the year.

"I think there will be a trend towards greater deregulation over time, and Perth will fall into line with the rest of the world and have much more liberal trading regimes, but that is for the future," he said.

"For those that are worried there is going to be some radical change, the Premier has made it quite plain, I've made it quite plain, that's not we're intending."