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Mingy little versions of supermarkets represent a contraction of consumer choice. The UK should just do away with silly no shopping on Sundays at large stores

Mingy little versions of supermarkets represent a contraction of consumer choice. The UK should just do away with silly no shopping on Sundays at large stores because you really should be in church laws.

gsnedders 9y ago
> The UK should just do away with silly no shopping on Sundays at large stores because you really should be in church laws. *England (and Wales) and Northern Ireland At least as far as English law goes, every time this comes up there's typically enough opposition about people having time with family (and having a day off coincide). I don't remember any discussion about church in decades. Of course, the discourse in Northern Ireland may differ.
- wil421 9y ago
  > people having time with family In the US, this is code for day off for church. Chick-fail-a is a fast food restaurant that uses this same reasoning for closing Sunday. The company is widely known to have Christian values. It was only a few years ago that my state, Georgia, allowed alcohol to be bought in stores on Sunday. They still only allow it after 12:30, church gets out at 12:15.
  - fusiongyro 9y ago
    We have the same law here in New Mexico. No booze can be sold at a store until after noon on Sundays.
  - planteen 9y ago
    The general word for these laws are blue laws. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law I live in Colorado and bizarrely buying cars on Sunday is prohibited. One "nice" thing about this law is you can go walk a car lot on a Sunday without getting bugged by sales people.
    - amyjess 9y ago
      > I live in Colorado and bizarrely buying cars on Sunday is prohibited. IIRC, Texas has a weird law where car dealers can be open on either Saturday or Sunday but not both.
      - ghaff 9y ago
        In addition to church, one of the drivers of regulations around weekend closures is small businesses. The idea is that larger businesses can be open whenever it's profitable to hire people to work. Whereas many small businesses effectively require the owner to be present. Not arguing for that position but I've heard the argument around opening on Sunday. It's been a big shift in much of the US. In Massachusetts, almost nothing was open when I was in school and Sunday retail alcohol sales are a relatively recent thing. And there are still very weird alcohol-related laws in some towns.
        MrMorden 9y ago
        If a business doesn't have enough employees to open seven days a week, there's nothing stopping them from picking the most profitable five or six. (Or, for that matter, providing a product that's sufficiently better for your store to do more business in six days than the competition does in seven.) In the UK, small businesses (as implemented, by floor area) are exempted from this particular blue law to give them an advantage. In practice, either they don't take advantage of it to open for a reasonable duration on Sunday (or any other day, for that matter) or they're too big and get screwed (as with the independent grocery stores mentioned in this article).
- Mz 9y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 5 mins of witty, brilliant lowdown on The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained.
stevenwoo 9y ago
I was surprised to read about those laws still being on the books in the UK, thought it was stupid in the US when most people haven't regularly gone to church on Sunday in a while.
- cavanasm 9y ago
  There are similar laws on the books in some localities in the US still. Example: No retail alcohol sales on Sundays in Indiana. However, restaurants can still serve. At this point, it's a boon to generally slow Sunday restaurant sales, and businesses don't seem to want it changed, even if it irritates consumers.
  - mitchty 9y ago
    They FINALLY got rid of the no alcohol sales on Sunday here in Minnesota literally a few months ago. Been on the books since statehood, finally enough people got sick of the crap and got the stupid liquor seller lobby told off by telling our representatives we'd not vote for them anymore if they continued to do the stupid no sunday sales crap. http://www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-first-liquor-stores-are-legally-open-on-a-sunday/432119993/ http://www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-first-liquor-stores-a... Sunday selling laws in general are stupid.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      Hoorah, now we can be drunk all week without having to plan anything in advance! Would be interested to see if it (will) affected alcohol related disease, deaths, rehab, etc.. I imagine a day of enforced sobriety - because you were too drunk all week to plan ahead - might actually have been a great help for some??
      - orangecat 9y ago
        I imagine a day of enforced sobriety - because you were too drunk all week to plan ahead - might actually have been a great help for some?? Yes, in the same sense that you can probably find someone who is better off because of the government's policy of randomly ruining the lives of pot smokers.
PeachPlum 9y ago
> Mingy little versions of supermarkets represent a contraction of consumer choice. But it is based on consumer behaviour, not some nefarious choice reduction agenda. Large scale weekly shops are in decline. Shoppers have been buying smaller orders more frequently. You can't expect them to stock 10 types of butter for you to choose from and throw the other 9 away. Even if they had enough storage space to accommodate your choice demands, local residents do not enjoy huge trucks at all times of day and night so they are restricted to certain hours of operation for delivery. Small frequent order shopping is something retailers would rather not have to cater for at all.
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
I'd rather see them closed on Sunday and I'm not religious.
jotm 9y ago
Where is that? Asda and Aldi near me are open on Sundays till 4pm... As opposed to Germany and Belgium, where only gas stations are open and everything is overpriced as a result.
sliverstorm 9y ago
On the other hand a greater number of mini supermarkets means at any given time you're closer to a supermarket. Maybe even in walking distance. Choice vs convenience, car culture vs walking & biking.
willewonte 9y ago
I don't think the Bible requires that you be in church, it merely says 'keep the Sabbath day holy', or something like that. True spiritual laws are less like political legislation and more like scientific laws in that they're not arbitrary or coercive. From a secular perspective one could say: being busy 7 days a week is like drinking 7 days a week, or going with little sleep for 7 nights: you're going to make sub-optimal decisions. (Which you will regret and which will give you more work as a result.)
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
The UK has done away with such laws in favour of "opinion polls show people like Sunday trading, Christmas closures and such". Pretty sure all the supermarkets in my small UK city open 7 days a week??
bluedino 9y ago
Most stores are 24 hours, 7 days a week in the USA and only close on December 25th

gsnedders 9y ago

> The UK should just do away with silly no shopping on Sundays at large stores because you really should be in church laws. *England (and Wales) and Northern Ireland At least as far as English law goes, every time this comes up there's typically enough opposition about people having time with family (and having a day off coincide). I don't remember any discussion about church in decades. Of course, the discourse in Northern Ireland may differ.

wil421 9y ago
> people having time with family In the US, this is code for day off for church. Chick-fail-a is a fast food restaurant that uses this same reasoning for closing Sunday. The company is widely known to have Christian values. It was only a few years ago that my state, Georgia, allowed alcohol to be bought in stores on Sunday. They still only allow it after 12:30, church gets out at 12:15.
- fusiongyro 9y ago
  We have the same law here in New Mexico. No booze can be sold at a store until after noon on Sundays.
- planteen 9y ago
  The general word for these laws are blue laws. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law I live in Colorado and bizarrely buying cars on Sunday is prohibited. One "nice" thing about this law is you can go walk a car lot on a Sunday without getting bugged by sales people.
  - amyjess 9y ago
    > I live in Colorado and bizarrely buying cars on Sunday is prohibited. IIRC, Texas has a weird law where car dealers can be open on either Saturday or Sunday but not both.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      In addition to church, one of the drivers of regulations around weekend closures is small businesses. The idea is that larger businesses can be open whenever it's profitable to hire people to work. Whereas many small businesses effectively require the owner to be present. Not arguing for that position but I've heard the argument around opening on Sunday. It's been a big shift in much of the US. In Massachusetts, almost nothing was open when I was in school and Sunday retail alcohol sales are a relatively recent thing. And there are still very weird alcohol-related laws in some towns.
      - MrMorden 9y ago
        If a business doesn't have enough employees to open seven days a week, there's nothing stopping them from picking the most profitable five or six. (Or, for that matter, providing a product that's sufficiently better for your store to do more business in six days than the competition does in seven.) In the UK, small businesses (as implemented, by floor area) are exempted from this particular blue law to give them an advantage. In practice, either they don't take advantage of it to open for a reasonable duration on Sunday (or any other day, for that matter) or they're too big and get screwed (as with the independent grocery stores mentioned in this article).
Mz 9y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10 5 mins of witty, brilliant lowdown on The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained.

stevenwoo 9y ago

I was surprised to read about those laws still being on the books in the UK, thought it was stupid in the US when most people haven't regularly gone to church on Sunday in a while.

cavanasm 9y ago
There are similar laws on the books in some localities in the US still. Example: No retail alcohol sales on Sundays in Indiana. However, restaurants can still serve. At this point, it's a boon to generally slow Sunday restaurant sales, and businesses don't seem to want it changed, even if it irritates consumers.
- mitchty 9y ago
  They FINALLY got rid of the no alcohol sales on Sunday here in Minnesota literally a few months ago. Been on the books since statehood, finally enough people got sick of the crap and got the stupid liquor seller lobby told off by telling our representatives we'd not vote for them anymore if they continued to do the stupid no sunday sales crap. http://www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-first-liquor-stores-are-legally-open-on-a-sunday/432119993/ http://www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-first-liquor-stores-a... Sunday selling laws in general are stupid.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    Hoorah, now we can be drunk all week without having to plan anything in advance! Would be interested to see if it (will) affected alcohol related disease, deaths, rehab, etc.. I imagine a day of enforced sobriety - because you were too drunk all week to plan ahead - might actually have been a great help for some??
    - orangecat 9y ago
      I imagine a day of enforced sobriety - because you were too drunk all week to plan ahead - might actually have been a great help for some?? Yes, in the same sense that you can probably find someone who is better off because of the government's policy of randomly ruining the lives of pot smokers.

PeachPlum 9y ago

> Mingy little versions of supermarkets represent a contraction of consumer choice. But it is based on consumer behaviour, not some nefarious choice reduction agenda. Large scale weekly shops are in decline. Shoppers have been buying smaller orders more frequently. You can't expect them to stock 10 types of butter for you to choose from and throw the other 9 away. Even if they had enough storage space to accommodate your choice demands, local residents do not enjoy huge trucks at all times of day and night so they are restricted to certain hours of operation for delivery. Small frequent order shopping is something retailers would rather not have to cater for at all.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago

I'd rather see them closed on Sunday and I'm not religious.

jotm 9y ago

Where is that? Asda and Aldi near me are open on Sundays till 4pm... As opposed to Germany and Belgium, where only gas stations are open and everything is overpriced as a result.

sliverstorm 9y ago

On the other hand a greater number of mini supermarkets means at any given time you're closer to a supermarket. Maybe even in walking distance. Choice vs convenience, car culture vs walking & biking.

willewonte 9y ago

I don't think the Bible requires that you be in church, it merely says 'keep the Sabbath day holy', or something like that. True spiritual laws are less like political legislation and more like scientific laws in that they're not arbitrary or coercive. From a secular perspective one could say: being busy 7 days a week is like drinking 7 days a week, or going with little sleep for 7 nights: you're going to make sub-optimal decisions. (Which you will regret and which will give you more work as a result.)

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

The UK has done away with such laws in favour of "opinion polls show people like Sunday trading, Christmas closures and such". Pretty sure all the supermarkets in my small UK city open 7 days a week??

bluedino 9y ago

Most stores are 24 hours, 7 days a week in the USA and only close on December 25th