Why do places close/close early on Sundays?

[Augustus]

Of course we shouldn't limit good deeds to one day a week, but I am a pretty sure that most of us could take care of all our business 6 days a week and leave sunday to being sunday.

For most of the people I know, that's not practical at all.

That is funny, because for most people I know, that is how they do things. and I bet the people I know are not necessarily any richer or poorer or busier or more overbooked, etc, than the people you know.
I bet we know the same kind of people.

Bringing it back to what I said before that you make time for the things you want to do.

 

[nevermore]

What a comprehensive and brilliant answer.

Well what else do you want me to say? What else is there to say? We all agree that this shouldn't be legislated. It is a choice.

I say that the principle behind the laws are correct, even if the laws aren't and you and others say that those principles no longer apply because we have "grown past them, "become a 24/7 society", and basically no longer have the time to do everything in 6 days. And that the religious ideas that this came from no longer apply either.

I just don't agree. I don't have any studies or surveys or such things to prove it. But I do know that leaving sunday to other matters generally helps me to be more efficient with my time. And just because people choose not to live by an ideal or principle doesn't make the principle invalid.

But anyway, if you don't believe me, just try it out for a month if you can and see if it works for you.

No, I'm pretty happy with my life as it is. In fact, I personally tend to be rather idle most Sundays, but then again, I lead a relatively simple life without family commitments etc. My argument is not about my life. It's about the lives of people who DO have a large number of commitments and who therefore cannot cram all their errands etc. into one day a week (say, for instance, kids, a sick relative, and 80-hour/week job, a 4-hour/day commute, work and school, a second job, volunteer work on a day other than Sunday because someone has to run the soup kitchen during the week too etc. etc. etc.).

 

[Augustus]

You just listed symptoms of the problem, as I see it.
And I am talking about the solution.

 

[nevermore]

You just listed symptoms of the problem, as I see it.
And I am talking about the solution.

No, I'm talking about life as other people lead it, whether by choice or necessity. You're talking about something that works for you that allows you to lead your life the way you want to. You're ignoring the fact that other people have actual things that they have to do, not that they want to do. Have to. And most of the time, they don't get to choose when they do those things, leaving limited time for them to do other things that they have to do, like buy food.

To say "well, I don't need Sunday to do those things, so they shouldn't if they just do what I do" is myopic and self-centered.

 

[Augustus]

I am not entirely sure how I am being "self-centered". Call me crazy but I really don't believe that what you describe is the case. Like I said, I think we know the same cross section of people and no one is that busy with "have to's".

But whatever, I don't think we will come a middle ground here.

 

[John Picard]

I am not entirely sure how I am being "self-centered". Call me crazy but I really don't believe that what you describe is the case. Like I said, I think we know the same cross section of people and no one is that busy with "have to's".

But whatever, I don't think we will come a middle ground here.

You state it in this post.

Well what else do you want me to say? What else is there to say? We all agree that this shouldn't be legislated. It is a choice.

I say that the principle behind the laws are correct, even if the laws aren't and you and others say that those principles no longer apply because we have "grown past them, "become a 24/7 society", and basically no longer have the time to do everything in 6 days. And that the religious ideas that this came from no longer apply either.

I just don't agree. I don't have any studies or surveys or such things to prove it. But I do know that leaving Sunday to other matters generally helps me to be more efficient with my time. And just because people choose not to live by an ideal or principle doesn't make the principle invalid.

But anyway, if you don't believe me, just try it out for a month if you can and see if it works for you.

What works for you does not mean it works for everyone else.

 

[nevermore]

I am not entirely sure how I am being "self-centered". Call me crazy but I really don't believe that what you describe is the case. Like I said, I think we know the same cross section of people and no one is that busy with "have to's".

But whatever, I don't think we will come a middle ground here.

I think you're mistaken about who "we" know.

I know plenty of people who are busy with "have to"s. primarily people who work full-time or more-than-full-time jobs and attend graduate school in the evenings and on weekends. Or professors who commute 4 hours to their campus and hold office hours for their students and spend all their free time grading papers. Stop assuming.

 

[RoJoHen]

There are also a lot of people who in places that are open 7 days a week, and they rarely have a regular schedule from week to week. There are some weeks that I work Sundays. There are other weeks where Sunday is my ONLY day off. Most people like me use their days off to accomplish other things (errands, shopping, etc). If stores were closed on Sundays, I'd pretty much be fucked until the next week.

 

[Cali]

Regular schedule? What's that?

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

It so that everyone will go out on saturdays and pack stores and make life hell for each other.

The actual sabbath was saturday, but those christians couldn't bear to share it with jews.

 

[TorontoTrekker]

I know plenty of people who are busy with "have to"s. primarily people who work full-time or more-than-full-time jobs and attend graduate school in the evenings and on weekends. Or professors who commute 4 hours to their campus and hold office hours for their students and spend all their free time grading papers. Stop assuming.

Exactly. I spend over 3 hours per day commuting to my job, and when I get home I have emails to deal with for the events I work on, and I spend a few hours online with my boyfriend, four days per week. On weekends I often have meetings that take up much of my day and that aren't all that close to where I live. (This weekend, for example, I had a five-hour meeting for Worldcon northeast of the city on Saturday and two Polaris meetings totalling five hours north of the city today.

Now, I could give up all the work I do on conventions, give up my relationship and move to the boring small town I work in, but if all I did was work, sit in front of the television and sleep, then in my view, my life wouldn't be worth living. (I remember doing that from about 1997-2001, when I started working on cons again. I was bored out of my tree.)

I'm thankful that I have a 24/7 grocery store a couple of blocks away, and that there's a pharmacy in the same mall that's open until midnight. It's a good thing that I can stop on my way home from work to pick up something for dinner, or pick up other sundries. And I'm not the only one who does this, because it usually takes me several minutes to get through the checkout line because of the number of people in front of me.

Augustus, you may not have anything in your life outside of your job. And that's your choice. But for those of us who do, we need those extra hours to take care of personal things.

 

[Captain Ice]

I'm thankful that I have a 24/7 grocery store a couple of blocks away, and that there's a pharmacy in the same mall that's open until midnight. It's a good thing that I can stop on my way home from work to pick up something for dinner, or pick up other sundries. And I'm not the only one who does this, because it usually takes me several minutes to get through the checkout line because of the number of people in front of me.

Amen.

BTW, TT, I'm jealous. The local drug stores around here are all open until 10pm or later, but the pharmacy counters close by 9.

Augustus, you may not have anything in your life outside of your job. And that's your choice. But for those of us who do, we need those extra hours to take care of personal things.

Again, amen.

There are a lot of weekends where I'll be able to just veg out in front of the TV on Sunday watching NASCAR, but there's also a lot of weekends where, for whatever reason, I could not get all of my errands done on Saturday.

One other thing that the others have not touched on (maybe my situation is different). You mention that you think that Sunday should be a day of service for others. What if that service is going out to the stores with/for someone who cannot do so for/by themselves like I did all day today? When I do this, Sunday is the only day I can do it due to work, school, and other commitments.

Remember, just because something works for you and those around you doesn't mean that it's a workable option for others. Quite frankly, there are days when I seriously wonder how single parents in the fifties managed to deal with stores not being open late at night or on Sunday and the banks all closing at 5 and not opening at all on Saturday.