Why cant they bring back the days ... - Page 5

[KaraBoo]

I don't think a day off is a bad idea. I just dislike the idea that Sunday is the Lord's Day and therefore shops should be closed. I'm not a Christian. I have no Lord. Not everyone is going to be in church and not need or want to shop on Sunday.

[Usually Curious]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

If everything was closed on Sundays, it would be horrible for Orthodox Jews. We don't go anywhere Friday afternoons and evenings and all day Saturdays, except maybe Saturday nights in the winters, when Shabbos ends earlier.

So what do you do if you work 5 days a week, have your Sabbath on a 6th day, and then the 7th day, the only day you're truly available for big shopping projects, the stores are all closed?

: I'm thankful that I am a homemaker, so that if we ever see the blue laws again I will be able to do the shopping during the week.

[EFmom]

Originally Posted by Joyfulmom4

Unfortunately, the pressure for extended hours is affecting many businesses, not just retail. I work in healthcare and there's all sorts of pressure to offer early morning hours, late evening hours, all night hours (other than ER), weekend hours, etc. And it's happening. Gradually, more and more "extended hours" are being added. If you look around, they're being added in other businesses as well.

I work in an academic library. I have to do reference on some weekend days and some evenings. To be honest, I hate working those extended hours. However, the students would justifiably be irate if we were only open 9-5 M-F. We are even looking to providing reference 24/7, which I think would be dreadful for librarians. If I want to find another place of employment, I'm free to do that.

As far as healthcare goes, I do wish more doctors had extended hours.

This shift has a great deal to do with wider changes in our economy from traditional manufacturing to service. If you are providing service, you need to think about what serves the customer, and clearly that's extended hours. It's highly unlikely that we are going to have a switch back to a manufacturing economy.

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by Thalia the Muse

It's hard to see any positives to bringing back Sunday blue laws! I like being able to shop at my convenience, not finding doors shut because the government believes I should be in church at a particular time.

:

I go church on Sat. so my days for weekend shopping is Sat. night or Sunday. And there are alot of stores and malls that open late and close early on Sundays, some don't open at all.

[turtlewomyn]

We are Atheists and we do all our grocery shopping on Sunday (DH and DD are doing it right now). We go early with all the other heathens, as it gets crowded after church gets out.

If you want to have Sunday be a family day, just don't go out. To insist that all others do the same is akin to trying to force your religious beliefs on others, which goes against the basic principles of this country.

[turkeygw]

I've been working every single freakin weekend since I started my job(which I hate) 5 months ago. I would sooooo love it that place was closed for Sundays, just so I could relax w/my family. Yeah, I miss those days too, but more importantly I miss the days when life was more laid back, not rush rush rush.

[Purple*Lotus]

Our library is not open on Sundays. I wish it was though, I am jealous of those who can go on a Sunday

[Belleweather]

Originally Posted by Bunnyflakes

Our library is not open on Sundays. I wish it was though, I am jealous of those who can go on a Sunday

This is my biggest pet peeve with our library system. Why can't they be closed on a Tuesday, when many people are working and unable to check out books, rather than a Sunday when more people might want to use the library?!

Then again, I might just be peevish because I just got home from vacation and discovered that holds I've been waiting for since November are in and they're being held hostage until basically Tuesday because the library isn't open Sunday and closes at 5pm on Monday. :

[Sailor]

I sort of like the conveinence of having things open everyday. That way, in case I forgot something or need something, I can run out and get it. I'm speaking in terms of grocery as I don't shop often for other things.

I lived in Florence for a year, and it was like that there. By 6:00PM, the streets were empty. Except for the tourists who were like "ahh, what happened?!" lol And then Sundays everything was closed. On top of that, there was some sort of weird business schedule that I could never figure out. Sometimes businesses would be closed on Mondays. Sometimes they were open. Sometimes banks would be closed on Tuesdays, sometimes they would be open. I could not figure it out, though I'm sure there is a very simple explanation.

After that year, and the next one, which I spent in London, Greece, and Poland, I must admit I have come to appreciate having the conveinence of stores being open daily, often 24/7.

I, too, am an atheist, and so Sunday for me is just another day. I actually think that stores could take a day off, easily, during another part of the week when most people are working. But, Sunday, for me would be an inconvenient day to have things close. I do my shopping then!

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by turtlewomyn

We are Atheists and we do all our grocery shopping on Sunday (DH and DD are doing it right now). We go early with all the other heathens, as it gets crowded after church gets out.

same here!

[smeisnotapirate]

Heathens and Jews do their shopping on Sundays.

That sounds like bumper sticker. Or the beginning to a bad joke.

A Heathen and a Jew walked into a grocery store on a Sunday morning..........

[Collinsky]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

If everything was closed on Sundays, it would be horrible for Orthodox Jews. We don't go anywhere Friday afternoons and evenings and all day Saturdays, except maybe Saturday nights in the winters, when Shabbos ends earlier.

So what do you do if you work 5 days a week, have your Sabbath on a 6th day, and then the 7th day, the only day you're truly available for big shopping projects, the stores are all closed?

Yes. Growing up, we were Sabbath-keeping Christians, which meant no shopping from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday... not being able to get things on Sunday was annoying at best.

There was a nearby town which had a "nice lawns" law which said that during the summer, lawns had to be mowed once a week. Only, they couldn't be mowed on Sunday. So for any Sabbath-keepers in that town, they would have had to find time during the week after a full days work to mow their lawn. Which I'm sure many do mow their lawn on Wednesday evening... but to not have the option of mowing on the weekend because of a random Christian-centric Sunday restriction was insensitive to say the least, IMO.

If you don't like shopping on a particular day, plan ahead and avoid it so you can have the whole weekend for nothing but doing the NY Times crossword and family time. We planned ahead so that we didn't have shopping, business, or heavy work to do on Saturday, and it was a family day for us. That was nice, and I can definitely see wanting that...but it's not something that the stores had to change their hours to accommodate.

I'm SO glad that we have more choices about when, how, and where we do our shopping.

[Ruthla]

Why are the laws restricting Sunday business activities referred to as "blue laws"? They made people feel blue?

[Dakota's Mom]

Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence to support the assertion that the blue laws were originally printed on blue paper. Instead, the word blue was commonly used in the eighteenth century as a disparaging reference to rigid moral codes and those who observed them (e.g., "bluenoses").

Other early blue laws prohibited work, travel, recreation, and activities such as cooking, shaving, cutting hair, wearing either lace or precious metals, sweeping, making beds, kissing, and engaging in sexual intercourse. The Puritans believed that a child was born on the same day of the week on which it was conceived. Therefore, the parents of children born on a Sunday were punished for violating the blue law nine months earlier.

Blue laws have operated to protect Christian business owners from competition on their sabbath. However, they don’t protect those (such as Jews and Muslims) whose sabbath is Saturday from competition on their sabbath. Thus blue laws have established a double standard in favor of Christians.

I found this on this link:

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/con...095380608.html

Kathi

[llamalluv]

I shop on Sundays sometimes. And I still manage to make it to both worship services.

[KaraBoo]

But in some religions, it's forbidden to be part of any kind of commerce on your holy day (be it Sunday or Saturday).

[smeisnotapirate]

Originally Posted by KaraBoo

But in some religions, it's forbidden to be part of any kind of commerce on your holy day (be it Sunday or Saturday).

Correct. Which is why you'll see every store owned by an Orthodox Jew closed on a Saturday. Three things are inevitable - death, taxes, and no Judaica shopping on Saturdays.

[Bluegoat]

Originally Posted by Ola_

One of our provinces, Nova Scotia, used to have everything closed on Sundays by law. We were quite surprised on our trip a couple of years ago to find that - it was our last day there and we hoped to do a little shopping and get souvenirs. Doh!

I hear that they changed this since then though - not sure if all the retailers are open now that they're allowed to be?

Yes, it changed about 2 years ago now; but since the old law was struck off they haven't passed a new one, so the only mandated holiday is Remembrance Day, since it is a federal law! The change was really controversial among retail workers though.

I think everyone deserves a regular day off that they can predict. There used to be a law here 100 years ago that restricted evening opening. It was designed to ensure that shop clerks got time off.

I don't think that mandated closing on a one-day-a week basis makes much sense now, in most places. We have more religious diversity and more two income families. But I think the issues that are being brought up in this thread are still important, and so perhaps we need to find other ways to address them.

How do we make sure people have time to spend with their families, when everyone can be together? How do we make sure that small businesses can operate competitively (do we even think that is important or do we like Wal-mart?) How can we make it so workers have regular time off to schedule classes, or hobbies? How can we make sure that people get time off to worship according to their religion?

To say that people can just get a job that doesn't operate on their holy day seems a bit naive to me; there are reasons so many Orthodox Jews run their own business or work in an Orthodox run business and time off is one of them.

I also think that the issue of consumerism and instant gratification is one we need to think about. How often do our wants become needs? We have started to have a very fast paced society, and I don't think it always serves us well.

[Bluegoat]

Posted twice! Sorry!

[KaraBoo]

Again, I think a day of rest is a wonderful idea. I just dislike that automatically Sunday is chosen as the day of rest because it's assumed we're all Christians or are OK with laws made to suit a Christian lifestyle.