From: borden@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Dave Borden)
Newsgroups: ne.general
Subject: Re: Sunday Liquor Sales
Date: 11 Dec 92 15:48:18 GMT
Reply-To: borden@m5.harvard.edu
Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA,  USA

In article <1992Dec10.200738.13641@linus.mitre.org> jclander@texas.mitre.org (Julian C. Lander) writes:
>In article <PLD.92Dec10095953@cthulhu.hq.ileaf.com>, pld@cthulhu.hq.ileaf.com (Peter L. DeWolf) writes:
>|> >>>>> On Tue, 8 Dec 1992 21:10:47 GMT, jclander@texas.mitre.org (Julian C. Lander) said:
>|> > Nntp-Posting-Host: fkuhl-pc.mitre.org
>|> 
>|> > This discussion seems to be missing something.  There are some
>|> > smaller stores which sell liquor and are closed on Sunday.  My uncle
>|> > owns one.  If Sunday opening were legal, he would have to open or
>|> > lose business.  
>|> 
>|> I'm certainly missing something in your argument.  If Sunday openings
>|> were legal, he'd either have to open or lose the business he currently
>|> doesn't have, but which would be available to him with new laws.  If
>|> he doesn't open on Sundays, how would his life be any different than
>|> it is now? 

>Because most people plan.  Sunday closings don't stop people from
>drinking liquor, only from buying it.  So now they buy a little extra
>over the course of the week.  

But a lot of people don't plan.  A lot of beer drinking is spontaneous.  And
a lot of people don't even schedule their regular activities very well.  

>For example, I find that supermarkets are very crowded on Saturday and
>Sunday.  So I make it a point to check my supplies of staples (orange
>juice, cereal, milk, etc.) around Thursday, which means I can avoid
>shopping on Saturday on Sunday.  If I found it practical to shop at
>the supermarket on Sunday, I would not check so carefully, and I would
>end up shopping then.  The supermarket isn't getting any more business
>from me, it's just spread over more days.

The fact that the supermarkets are very crowded on Saturday and Sunday
demonstrates that even in the area of food shopping, a regular activity
for most people, a lot of people don't plan.  I often decide to stop at
the market on the way home from work, and only remember when I'm there
and on line how crowded it tends to be at that time.  I could plan to
go at specific times when I know the lines will be short, but I'm just
not that organized most of the time.  Besides, unplanned things come up.

I believe that people should have freedom of choice, and that freedom of
choice should be taken away only when it's truly necessary.  This includes
not catering to special interests.  Your uncle is probably a very nice man,
but in this case he's a special interest.  We all are, in one way or
another.  But we all might be better off not trying to enforce our own
interest through law, and thereby not losing time, money, and convenience
to protect the special interests of others.

Also, I don't believe that your uncle would have to stay open seven days
a week.  Freedom of choice means that he can be open of closed whenever
he wants.  Some storeowners will choose to close on other days of the week,
instead.  By requiring that all stores stay closed on Sunday, you make it
much more difficult for them to do that.  You make them lose perhaps a sixth
of their business, whereas without the blue laws your uncle would lose
about a seventh of his business by closing on Sunday.  You're discriminating
against orthodox jewish merchants, who have to close on Saturday, as well as
against anyone who wants to do things a different way for whatever reason.

The most powerful case you have for the Sunday blue law is that large stores,
which can afford to hire people to work for them, will easily be able to stay
open seven days, thereby causing the little guy, the small store-owner, to
either lose business or work seven days.  But I'm just as, and even more
concerned with the really little guys - the ones who work behind the cash
registers and in the backrooms in the big stores (and in the little stores,
too).  They're making minimum wage, for the most part, much, much less than
your uncle is undoubtedly making, and a lot of them could use some more
hours of work, and a lot of people like them who haven't been able to find
jobs at all, would line up for the jobs that would be created.  There is no
doubt that business would increase were stores allowed to open on Sundays.
Perhaps not proportionally to the increase in store hours (because some people
do indeed plan), but it would unquestionably increase somewhat.  Which would
mean more work for the unskilled.

It's regrettable that life might be a little harder for small storeowners like
your uncle, but forcing stores to close on Sunday is just too unfair to too
many people.  It's unfair to jews, it's unfair to people who want to take
off other days for other reasons, it's unfair to the consumer, and it's unfair
to store employees and potential store employees.

   - Dave Borden