Arguing about Sunday shopping made easy…

I feel compelled to comment on the Sunday shopping debate. Not because I’m passionate about shopping at all, any day of the week. But because the current debate has been inundated with so many personal sympathy seekers, its getting to the point of plain silly.

The debate about shopping on a Sunday should be void of any of the following topics:

1. Time spent with family
2. The plight of the small business owner
3. Consumerism and the evils of big box stores
4. Religion
5. Workers rights and labour laws
6. Personal time management

Certainly, I’m not suggesting that any of the above topics aren’t important areas of discussion. In fact, I’m presenting the opposite. All of these topics are so important that to attach them to a debate centered around what day of the week we buy groceries lessens their importance and displaces what should be outrage among citizens on how many of them are handled in our society.

1. Government legislated “Family Time” is a disgusting concept. Firstly, not everyone enjoys spending time with their family. Secondly, if you love your family, you don’t need your government to tell you spend time with them. Thirdly, some families would view a day at department store or grocery store as an enjoyable day of “Family Time”.

2. Small business owners often suggest that they will go out of business should larger, significantly cheaper stores open on Sundays. While I’ve not read statistics in this area, I’ve observed that convenience stores appear to prosper in many areas where Sunday shopping is permitted by providing proximity, speed of service and extended hours. Adding beer and liquor sales opportunities to corner stores would be a good step to ensuring small businesses maintain a Sunday shopping advantage over larger more inexpensive businesses.

3. People defy excessive consumerism by NOT shopping when they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Not shopping for seven days a week instead of six actually strengthens a persons attitude and resolve against the evils of our consumerist society.

4. Sunday is one Sabbath day among many other Sabbath days. To single out Sunday as the “Lord’s Day” is to suggest that other religions are not valid and do not deserve the same respect and observation as Christianity. Stating that Canada was built on Christian values is merely an historical statement and does nothing to persuade anyone that it should continue to be so. The argument of “that’s the way it was in the past” never holds water, as there are many negative aspects of our past societal structures including oppression, racism and sexism. These all continue to exist today but one would be hard pressed to argue that they should be preserved merely because they were practiced in the past.

5. Workers rights and labour laws are important issues that affect all facets of society. Basic rights should be applied to all workers including ample vacation and sick days, the right to refuse work based on religious beliefs and a safe and healthy working environment. Nova Scotia’s Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act was not conceived to protect workers rights. If it were, it would protect all workers including cab drivers, wait staff, black jack dealers and others. We should not force a piece of legislation that was never intended for the protection of worker’s rights to function as one. Its sloppy legislative policy and it weakens the overall fight for fair labour laws in this province.

6. Personal time management is at the discretion of all individuals. Our government does not legislate the time I need to get ready in the morning, nor does it legislate how much time I spend watching TV. Therefore, arguing that people should manage their time better so as not to need a seventh day to shop is invading every free citizen’s right to chose what they do with their time. Using this argument should only be used when the arguer also believes that everything except absolute emergency services should be closed on Sundays since we should all manage our time better throughout the week so as not to need cabs, buses, food, entertainment, prescription drugs or gas on Sundays.

The issues that should come into play when discussing Sunday shopping are these:

A. Consistency of the law
B. Legal precedence
C. Government jurisdiction

A. If we’re saying we’re a province that observes one day of rest each week, then we should be serious. Close all retail, restaurants, bars, casinos, gas stations, pharmacies, etc. Everything that does not prevent a person from dying or being the victim of a crime should be closed on Sunday. Of course, logically, if appears impractical then we must have consistency across the board and let all retail be open.

B. This fight has already been fought and won by Pete Luckett. To allow his Frootique to maintain Sunday shopping while not permitting it with other stores is to go against the legal precedence that has been set. And while I’m not a lawyer, I believe this precedence is stronger than a non-binding plebiscite.

C. Its evident that the desire for Sunday shopping is more urban than rural. It therefore seems silly to make it provincial issue. Allowing municipalities to chose would put the debate to rest in a lot of areas since those who voted for Sunday shopping (primarily in HRM) would get it and those who voted against would maintain the status quo.

This concludes my discussion of Sunday shopping. I felt it necessary to clean up the debate so as not to waste any more time involved in discussions about the first six non-relevant topics so that I may focus on the three relevant topics. Now I’ll be able to end useless circular arguments before they start by scanning them for relevance with ease.

â€“Beth Lewis

I was thinking of making a post about the Sunday shopping debate (debacle?), but Beth beat me to the punch with her e-mail. I still have some thoughts of my own on the matter, but based on web skills alone I think you can tell which side of the fence I stand on:

If you can convince me that Nova Scotia’s Sunday Shopping laws make sense rationally and the loopholes that grocery stores have found should be eliminated, I will take you on a Sunday Shopping Spree of my choosing on my dime (note: I am not affiliated these companies and the opinions displayed here belong to me and do not reflect the views of anybody linked below). It would look like this:

$20 worth of gambling at the Casino Nova Scotia
something “double double” from Tim Hortons
breakfast at Mollyz
a growler at the Propeller Beer Store
a personal pleasuring device from Venus Envy
a pornographic dvd (your choice of orientation) from Excitement Video
a free rental of The Passion of the Christ from Video Difference
a pair of No Sweat sneakers from Outside the Lines
a screening of the latest Pixar movie and an overpriced bag of popcorn at an Empire Theatre
a spa refresher at Interlude Spa
a workout at Nubodys
a swim at Centennial Pool
a soya chocolate magic gelato cone at Dio Mio Gelato
a box of extra small condoms at Shopper’s Drug Mart
a Bingo scratch ticket from Lawton’s Drugs
a unit of bologna from Pete’s Frootique
a pint of raspberry ale from Rogue’s Roost
a copy of your favourite adult themed magazine from Atlantic News
a used Lennie Gallant CD from CD Plus
lunch at Mother Tucker’s (you have to pretend it’s your birthday)
a microwave rice cooker from Mulan Cultural Artifacts
a case of beer from the Keith’s Brewery
a t-shirt from Cow’s
a souwester from Murphy’s on the Water
a ride on the Halifax/Dartmouth ferry
a bootleg Tommy Hilfiger sweater from a flea market
a country music 8-track tape from Value Village
a book about Jesus from Chapters
something “grande” from Starbucks
supper at Steak & Stein (and you have to pretend it’s my birthday)
rent Grand Theft Auto at Blockbuster
order a “Stop Clubbing Baby Seals” shirt from T-Shirt Hell
a 1/2 hour of adult entertainment at Sensations Cabaret (beverage not included)
$5 for a VLT at Gus’ Pub
$20 donation to the Church of your choosing

Once you convince me, all you have to do is spend a Sunday with me and say “thank you” to all the workers (and write a hand written note they can take to their family) we will encounter that help to make your “no shopping” Sunday in Nova Scotia a reality.

Update:

I found a more up-to-date site for the Save Our Sundays movement, but I am still not convinced it is a good use of storage space and bandwidth. Also, here are links to two debates on the subject already in progress.
Pete Luckett challenged and won a court case against the government in 1999 and has been opening his grocery stores by registering the different sections as seperate business to comply with the square footage restrictions. The Nova Scotia government claims that you can only do this if you configured your business before June 1, 2004 (CBC News).
Here is a look at Nova Scotia’s provincial plebicite from 2004:

Please note that if there is to be Sunday shopping
(a) it would only be from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and
(b) it would not be on New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, July 1st, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day or Boxing Day
__________________________________________
Please answer both questions.
1. Should there be Sunday shopping (in retail businesses not now permitted to be open on Sunday)?
2. If there is to be Sunday shopping (in retail businesses not now permitted to be open on Sunday), should it be on every Sunday (except as noted above)?
on only the six Sundays before Christmas?