Never on Sunday

[LocktownDog]

Considering the majority of the population doesn't seem to go to any church (I'm 43 and have never stepped in one), why shouldn't a store owner take advantage of that? If the staff there were given the day off each week, I'm willing to bet very few would be heading to church.

I'm very busy during the week, so knowing that stores are open for me to run in and get produce ... very convenient.

 

[tonyb]

Considering the majority of the population doesn't seem to go to any church (I'm 43 and have never stepped in one), why shouldn't a store owner take advantage of that? ...

No good reason I can think of, either.

 

[Edward]

...and I know this is a wee bit of a bunny trail.... But speaking of shopping & holidays... I wish we could go back to groceries stores selling groceries. I am so fed up with these superstores that have to have their finger in every pie. Last night I went out after dinner to my neighbourhood "grocery store" it was a madhouse. The aisles were crammed, and the lineups at the checkouts were miles long .At the end of the shortest line I could find, I was standing between racks of SWEATERS! When I finally got to the cashier, I asked why the heck it was so busy on a Wednesday night , she looked at me like I was from another planet and said' "well, tomorrow is valentines day"!
why can't we go back to buying groceries from the grocer, Flowers from the florist and chocolates from the candy store? I was in the store 2 hours last night to buy $80 worth of groceries.

The problem there is not the shop, it's a lack of forward planning on the part of its patrons.

I'm very fond of the big box Sainsburys near me. All their cotton is Fair Trade, which is great, and they do some superb basics. Almost all my casual Summer shirts are from them; also have quite a few other shirts from them. Great stuff.

I remember as a bachelor, in my pad, I would buy a liter of milk whenever I felt like a glass. From the drugstore across the street.

Of course, being a bachelor, I would promise myself that I would drink the whole thing, but I never did. There was cheese in my fridge which moved faster.

Food shopping for one can be a problem, with all the offers / quantities seemingly designed for a family (quite bizarre these days, given we keep being told that the number of single households is on the rise here in London). I hate waste, but sometimes it can be hard to avoid.

Considering the majority of the population doesn't seem to go to any church (I'm 43 and have never stepped in one), why shouldn't a store owner take advantage of that? If the staff there were given the day off each week, I'm willing to bet very few would be heading to church.

I'm very busy during the week, so knowing that stores are open for me to run in and get produce ... very convenient.

It's also a legal issue - i.e. separation of Church and State. Same thing back twenty years ago in Ireland when a council in Ballymoney tried to stop a Council run leisure centre opening on a Sunday: a judicial review found against them because they were acting outside their remit, closing it on religious grounds, and thus shutting of the opportunity to those who did not share their religious belief.

The only thing that really concerns me about Sunday opening is the impact on the workforce, but if it's not forcing folks to work then who really have a problem with it and it doesn't mean people working without a day off, against their choice, then I firmly believe the law should facilitate the option being open for who wants it, while leaving the moral choice to open or not, or to not patronise those businesses who do (or when they do) to the individual.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I'd have to adjust, but I'd be okay with it. I usually do all my thrifting, antiquing, and buy liquor after church on Sundays, so I'd be needing to move all that to Saturdays.

 

[Red Diabla]

When I worked in Texas for awhile, I was really annoyed with the blue laws and shops being closed on Sundays because a lot of the time Sundays were the only day I had free to explore and see a bunch of the local lands.

Who knows how much money local merchants lost on their insistence of being closed when everyone else had the time off to shop?

RD

 

[Espee]

I liked it, in grade school, when a holiday such as Veterans Day fell on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. It split the school week into two manageable sections-- and the teachers tended not to be too "serious" during either portion.
And I'm surprised when I see school out for Columbus Day. In my time, we went to school on that day and spent part of it learning about Columbus, and other European explorers of the New World.
They take the day off in his honor? I thought he's supposed to be villified now...

 

[Espee]

And I can't even remember an instance where I got any good out of a "three-day weekend" although the concept is sound-- assuming you work a Monday-Friday job (and make enough money to ever go out of town.)

 

[Foxer55]

LocktownDog,

Considering the majority of the population doesn't seem to go to any church (I'm 43 and have never stepped in one), why shouldn't a store owner take advantage of that? If the staff there were given the day off each week, I'm willing to bet very few would be heading to church.

I'm very busy during the week, so knowing that stores are open for me to run in and get produce ... very convenient.

I think if you look at 'why' blue laws were overturned and the underlying current that contributes to many of our social problems today you can find what the problem is. Its all about money, economies-of-scale, and overly intense living which is stress. A steady diet of all that stuff is not good for anybody. Not using any religious theme but saying its good to stop and take a day off to contemplate life and yourself and take a break is a good thing. Everybody is living at supersonic speeds and it affects the entire human culture.

 

[Wally_Hood]

As I read this thread, I have to keep wrestling my Puritan Sabbatarianism to the ground...

 

[3fingers]

As I read this thread, I have to keep wrestling my Puritan Sabbatarianism to the ground...

lol I didn't grow up in that culture. We played on Sunday, and did a lot of enjoyable things. I think everything we do as a society is interrelated. As others have said, the repeal of blue laws came at the same time as a lot of social problems and coarsening of public behavior were showing up. Did stores being open 7 days a week spell doom for social order? No. This was just another small step down the rat hole.

Not using any religious theme but saying its good to stop and take a day off to contemplate life and yourself and take a break is a good thing. Everybody is living at supersonic speeds and it affects the entire human culture.

Exactly. As I said at the beginning, I don't connect this to any religious belief. I see it more as a quality of life thing. There have always been a good number of folks who do not participate in any organized religion who were able to enjoy not having to work every day of the week. Yes, it may be convenient for us to be able to buy whenever we want, but does anyone really believe that the employee stuck working on Sunday while friends and family engage in other activities is happy about it? I've noticed that many of the people who are in favor of Sunday shopping have a Monday-Friday job. I work in a municipal water plant that operates 24/7. This is an ongoing issue for the people that work the weekend shifts.(I generally do not unless someone is gone.) Most social activities and big events in peoples lives are on the weekend, with many being on Sunday. Public services (Police, fire, water, hospital,etc.) are required on Sunday, so we work around it. I just don't put Walmart in the same category.

 

[Foxer55]

3fingers,

This was just another small step down the rat hole.

Yep.

 

[Gingerella72]

Hmm, I did my grocery shopping today, as it was the only day I could do it on. If I didn't work full time outside the home and wasn't the breadwinner in the family, no doubt I would feel differently as my schedule would allow me to do all my shopping and errands on a weekday.

While I enjoy the nostalgic concept of everything being closed on Sunday and families just sitting about enjoying a day of rest, it just doesn't fit in a modern lifestyle.

Where I live, all of the downtown shops are closed on Sunday, but other retail outlets are open. But, until just a couple of years ago, we had no-alcohol-sold-on-Sunday-within-city-limits blue laws still in effect. A convenience store/gas station just outside city limits took advantage of this with a very well stocked liquor aisle, and every Sunday the place would be packed. When the issue to repeal the law came up, the only ones against it - other than the uber-religious - were the owners of that convenience store. I'm sure they saw a fall in profit once alcohol could be sold on Sundays.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I can recall the Sunday closing laws too. Not only liquor was unobtainable, but hardware as well, even if a store was open! I'd like to have those quiet, almost traffic-free streets and empty parking lots back again, but it truly wouldn't fit with the lifestyle of even careful planners nowadays. What if you have an emergency, a car problem, a house repair problem?

What I'd love is to have more stores open earlier in the day. Yes, there are 24-hour places, but even the Mall-Warts in my area don't open until 7 am on weekends. That might not sound so terrible -- but consider: In Da Swamp, summer lasts for 10-11 months a year. It gets durned hot by even 9 am. I like to run my errands early, before the sun gets too high, and be home in my A/C as the rest of the herd come thundering, and sweating, out to graze and stamp about.

 

[Stearmen]

We just got rid of the prohibition on Sunday liquor sales. But it is still illegal to sell a new car or motorcycle on Sunday. A few years ago, our local Harley shop was open on Sundays, they could sell parts and cloths, even fix a motorcycle, but they could not even answer a question about a new motorcycle!

 

[CONELRAD]

In some small towns in Texas, most of the businesses still do close on Sunday, and at five o'clock the rest of the week. Fredericksburg operated like that if I remember correctly, of course I haven't been there in eight ot ten years. On the other hand, I haven't actually spent enough time in a small town in the past five years to have an educated opinion.

 

[Cochese]

I used to work at Chick-fil-A, and it was a mixed bag having every Sunday off. Yes, you got a guaranteed, plannable day off each and every week (unless I was there powerwashing the drive-thru). However that meant you only got one day off a week during 'normal business hours'. Any doctors appointments, anything else that couldn't be accomplished on a Sunday had to be done that day.

Never agreed with laws stating you could or couldn't do this or that, especially sell certain things before 1:30p on a Sunday. Have a shift on Sunday but need to replace your work pants? Too bad.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Sort of related, but not really. One thing they did recently here was to make one of the highways one-side parking only through the city. They do, however have it posted by my church that you may park on both sides of the street for weddings, funerals, and on Sundays.

 

[flat-top]

Bergen County NJ still observes the blue law. This is about 15 minutes from where I work. Needles to say, a huge chunk of my Sunday business is from Bergen County residents. They don't wanna rest. They wanna shop!

 

[Duke of Buckingham]

I grew up in provincial England (between Nottingham and Derby). I remember Sunday closing - and that many of the smaller stores shut on a Wednesday afternoon, also.

For the life of me, I don't see where the extra business has come from. A friend's father who ran a plumber's merchant told me that he'd tried opening seven days a week but got the same amount of overall business just spread over more time - it was not worth his while.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

My pop has tried that with his store, too. Same amount of business, just more spread, out like you said. You'll never make people happy.

For the life of me, I don't see where the extra business has come from. A friend's father who ran a plumber's merchant told me that he'd tried opening seven days a week but got the same amount of overall business just spread over more time - it was not worth his while.