So what is a Blue Law? A blue law is a law preventing certain kinds of economic activity based on the day or time of the economic transaction. (For instance selling alcohol on Sundays.) Why I bring this up is because recently New Jersey is thinking of repealing the blue law in one county.
What I find interesting is that these laws still exist or that they ever did. I can kinda see the point of it in some ways. When I lived overseas there was a blue law in the place I was living. Not only were Sundays out but so were most evenings after 5:00 pm. I didn't want to shopp anyway I guess. It was a smaller town not a large one but it was nice. On Sundays people would walk around, talk to people, relax. However I do not feel like this was a result of the stores not being open. It was more just the culture around there.
That being said if you look at the list on the wikipedia site you will see a lot of really dumb exclusions to Sunday sales. For instance in Illinois you cannot sell a car on a Sunday. Why? Because Jesus walked everywhere and Sunday is his day? Or how about the states/areas which outlaw horse race gambling (but obviously not football gambling). It seems completely arbitrary who can and who cannot engage in commerce. If that is the case I say get rid of all of the blue laws completely. However if you want to prevent all commerce on Sundays then fine but stop making exceptions for various special interests. In the end it just seems like any kind of law like this is largely unneeded (people can talk the initiative to not shop on their own) and thus they should all be repealed.
I am happy to report there are no laws like that in Washington State where I currently reside. You can even buy alcohol on Sunday if that is your thing. :-)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
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Germany had blue laws as well, the most frustrating of which was hours when grocery stores could be open. In 2007, the grocery stores could only be open until 8pm on non-Sundays, which meant that I had to do all of my shopping before 8pm or I wouldn't have food. Grocery stores were not allowed to open on Sundays However, the Germans amended that law so grocery stores could stay open until midnight! Oh my! However, they still could not open on Sundays, except on special sale days.
ReplyDeleteAt first I found this restriction to be extremely annoying as it greatly restricted when I could actually buy groceries. However, over time, I began to love this law. It meant that Sunday was a day of rest (and hiking). I had an excuse to go out for a nice coffee (restaurants were allowed to be open) and really just enjoy the day instead of rushing to do more grocery shopping.
I think the reasoning for these laws was so workers would not be exploited. It ended up that everyone (mostly) got to take a break. It was WONDERFUL!