3 ms·

> 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 I

> 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.

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.