Posted on 06/23/2006 4:58:09 PM PDT by -=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-
Nova Scotia vows Sunday-shopping crackdown TERRY WEBER
Globe and Mail Update
The Nova Scotia government said Friday that it will crack down on the number of stores opening on Sunday.
The move will come by way of an amendment to existing legislation in an effort to close a loophole now being used by some larger retailers to do business on that day.
“We believe it is important to respect the results of the Sunday shopping plebiscite held in 2004,” Premier Rodney MacDonald said in a statement.
He also said, however, that recent events in the province suggest that the issue is still important for Nova Scotians.
“We will once again seek their views in a plebiscite to coincide with municipal elections scheduled for 2008,” he said.
Right now, retailers are — with some exceptions — barred from opening on Sundays and holidays.
Among those exempted are grocery stores with less than 4,000 square feet. Those outlets are allowed to open.
Under the planned changes, that exception will only be available to grocers who regularly opened before June 1, 2006.
The move is aimed at cracking down on grocers who had reconfigured their businesses to skirt the law.
Recently, larger retailers had sought to avoid the Nova Scotia Sunday shopping ban by roping larger stores into a collection of separate businesses.
The 2004 plebiscite saw voters narrowly reject more Sunday shopping
bump
Somehow,residents managed to survive in spite of those laws.Nobody starved,went without medical care or any other essentials.
Today,the state is all about money....conspicuous consumption...and "tolerance".
i don't mind having a day off.
was a bit freaky when I woke up to my first Sunday in the little town outside munich when company I was working for sent me there for a couple of months. First time in Europe.
I was hungry and started walking around the village and the stores, restaurants, and shops were all closed.
So I took a train into downtown Munich and most of everything was closed as well. Finally found a open cafe and the waitress told me what "Family Day" was all about.
As a rule, I don't go shopping on days I wouldn't want to work. That means Sundays and holidays are "shopping-free" days for me.
This is just weird. I can't imagine it. I want to shop when I need to shop. If that's Sunday, so be it!
In the 1950's, when most businesses in my home town of Whittier, Calif. were closed on Sunday, I asked my father if anyone worked on that day. He said, "sure. Ministers and preachers."
I'm really not a big fan of the state mandating business hours, but I do remember a time when Sundays were peaceful.
I can also remember a time when I was a little boy when the tv showed the flag, played the Star-Spangled Banner and then went black. Small towns after midnight were quiet back then. If you hadn't thought to buy something by 10 or 11 o'clock you probably didn't need it that dang bad! But today is more convienent but that too comes at a price.
It is strange to look back on that time now, considering how everything is "go, go, go" 24 hours a day. Day and night have lost meaning. I suspect this may be a cause for many of the stressed out lives people lead.
When we moved to Texas almost 30 years ago they had the same sort of laws. But a lot of exceptions had evolved over the years.
You could buy cloth diapers but not disposable ones.
You could buy nails but not a hammer
Etc.
The law was finally repealed after it became known that only 5% of the workers in the state worked in retail business that were affected by the Blue Laws. The other 95% worked in hospitals, power plants, TV stations, refineries, etc. that ran 365/24/7.
We should bring back the blue laws. Everywhere.
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