Sunday shopping
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Sunday shopping refers to the ability of retailers to operate stores on Sundays, in countries where Christian tradition typically require a "day of rest". Rules governing Sunday shopping vary around the world but many European nations continue to not allow Sunday shopping.
| Contents |
Canada
In 1982, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Lord's Day Act. However, at that time, only the Canadian Bill of Rights existed. That document only protected existing Canadian rights. As a result, the Court noted that Canada was an overwhelmingly Christian country that had accepted Sunday closing laws for years. The Court determined that the Lord's Day Act did not force people to practise Christianity or stop practising their own religion.
However, later that year, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was introduced, ensuring freedom of conscience and religion, regardless of existing federal or provincial laws. On April 24, 1985 - the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Lord's Day Act violated Canadians' freedom of religion. The 1985 ruling examined the original purpose of the act. It found that the Christian value of keeping the Sabbath holy had been incorporated into a law that affected all Canadians, Christian or not. This law -- the Lord's Day Act -- prevented non-Christians from performing otherwise legal activities on Sundays. This was inconsistent with the Canadian charter.
Nova Scotia is the only Canadian province that still prohibits Sunday shopping. It did experiment with the practice in 2003, and in 2004 held binding plebiscite. Results from the plebiscite were 45% in favour of Sunday shopping and 55% voting against it. Nova Scotia's Retail Business Uniform Closing Day Act allows some stores, such as video rental outlets and book stores, to open on Sundays, but department stores must remain closed.
Several other provinces have restrictions of some degree on Sunday shopping: in Prince Edward Island, it is only permitted in the four weeks leading to Christmas; in Manitoba it requires municipal approval and it is only permitted for six hours each day; and in New Brunswick the decisions require dual approval from municipal and provincial officials (although that is in the process of being changed), otherwise it is only permitted from July to December. Quebec allows wide-open shopping until 5:00 pm, and the other provinces allow wide-open shopping all day on most Sundays (except when it falls on a holiday or when objected by municipalities).
United States
Many stores in the United States have reduced hours of operation on Sundays, although the recent trend has led to expansion. A few local municipalities still prohibit Sunday shopping, and many others prohibit it until a certain time (most often 12:00 noon or 1:00 pm).
United Kingdom
Sunday trading in England and Wales was not generally permitted until 1994. This meant that shops such as department stores and supermarkets were not able to open legally. A number of specialist outlets were able to open legally, including garden centres, small "corner" or family run shops, and chemists. There was opposition to the legal reform from the campaign known as Keep Sunday special.
Several large outlets challenged the legal ruling in force before 1994 by opening on Sundays, and the eventual outcome was that large stores are now able to open for up to 6 hours on Sunday, typically from 10am to 4pm or 11am to 5pm. There are still some constraints on what can be sold (for example, alcoholic drinks), and Christmas Day and Easter Sunday have been excluded as trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter. Details of the changes to the legislation are included in the Sunday Trading Act 1994.
Germany
Germany recently ruled against Sunday shopping. See BBC news article on Sunday shopping in Germany (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3792015.stm).
