Blue Laws were in force in many states. They prohibited the sale of practically anything on the sabbath, (Sunday). The rare exceptions were emergency pharmacy refills.
By the late 1970’s the rules got relaxed a tiny bit. You could buy groceries on the sabbath. :eek: However, the aisles with non food items were roped off. No shampoo, measuring cups, or any light bulbs dared be sold. You risked eternal damnation if you bought a frying pan.
Walgreen’s started opening on Sunday, but you could only buy certain pharmacy and over the counter items. No magazines, books etc. on Sunday.
Anyway care to share wacky stories of business’ efforts to get around blue laws?
One of the funniest I recall was a jewelry store in my home town. Around 1977 they started opening a few hours on Sunday afternoon after church services. You couldn’t buy anything. However you could select an item (ring, bracelet, locket, watch etc.) and put it on layaway. <wink> <wink> It wasn’t a sale. You came back Monday, paid and got your item. That lasted about four Sundays before the state caught on. They were not happy. End of Sunday layaway’s.
If you lived under Blue Laws I’m sure you have stories to tell. Did you ever borrow something from a neighbor because it wasn’t sold on Sundays?
Blue Laws gradually faded away in my state. By 1984 you could buy anything except liquor or beer on Sunday. Early 1990’s you could order a beer in a restaurant. You still can’t get it in a grocery store (in my state) on Sunday.
I lived under them, but I don’t know of any ways they were avoided, other than driving out of the area that was affected.
Oh, here’s one but it’s minor: The suburb I live in had banned alcohol sales for the longest time. There was a bar that somehow had stayed around until the town decided to revoke their alcohol license, claiming that a place that served food would be fine, but not just a plain bar. (Note that no restaurants in town could even get liquor licenses - but could allow BYO - so I don’t know why this argument was made.) The bar owner put in a small grill area and served simple food, getting around the restriction.
Is it true that in Bergen County, New Jersey (home of some of the last blue laws) it’s illegal to sell books (like the Bible) on Sundays, but not illegal to sell newspapers or magazines (like Huslter)?
Here in Pennsylvania, its only within the last, maybe, three years that you are allowed to buy a case of beer or bottle of wine or spirits. We used to buy beer Saturday for all the Sunday football games or whatnot. We can buy bottles only at a state liquor store, wine and spirits are still not sold anywhere else (except bars or restaurants). The stores are only open from, I think noon to five on Sunday. We used to just buy alcohol before Sunday.
I think it is still illegal to sell a vehicle on a Sunday also. I think people just fill the paperwork out with Monday’s date.
Even buying gasoline was problematic. Most independent stations closed. 7-Eleven, Roadrunner places like that were open Sundays. On a Sunday trip, it was wise to never let the tank get more than half empty. You might not find an open gas station in the smaller towns.
For some reason, I have the idea that in MD, the blue laws restricted the number of employees a retail establishment could have, so while the grocery store was open and could sell whatever, they couldn’t have more than 6 or 8 workers, so getting service was next to impossible.
I grew up in the Keystone Commonwealth. The strangest blue was that no baseball game could start before 1 PM or continue past 7 PM. Now I sort of understand the first restriction, don’t compete with the churches, but never understood the second. And the laws were enforced by MLB; the umpires would not let an inning start after 6:45. This increasingly resulted in shortened games as Sunday doubleheaders were standard and when games started regularly gong towards 3 hours long. I don’t know when this ended.
Another quirk was that all bars and restaurants were required to stop serving liquor at midnight Saturday. But during periods of Daylight Savings, they could stay open till 1 AM (that is midnight standard time).
Here i Quebec there is a law that a store cannot have more than 4 employees on Sundays (and legal holidays). Security employees are not counted. So our local supermarkets will have a dozen security guards doing checkout, bagging, etc. But malls will be closed tomorrow, New Years day, unlike regular Sundays when they open at noon.
I think Georgia still bans alcohol sales on Sunday. They did as of a few years back.
We have a local department store , Belk, that was always closed on Sunday. One December we had bad weather and they were closed a day or 2 for that. They opened the next Sunday to make up for lost Christmas sales and then stayed open on all Sundays after that.
I think Colorado does too. All I know is that I got to the WalMart at 12:10am one (technically) Sunday morning and the cashier said I just missed the cutoff.
I have lived in California all my life; no real blue laws that I can recall. In Berkeley, you can’t sell liquor within a mile of the UC campus; I think there’s a state law about selling alcohol after 2am; I remember some restriction on selling alcohol at a gas station after midnight – local or state, don’t recall; of course, there are lots of local laws about strip clubs, nudity, and alcohol, but they’re pretty lenient in places where I’ve lived, I think.
Last time I worked at a c-store that had gas and beer in CA (about 2007) - beer sales from 6 AM - 2AM only. Eighteen year olds could sell until 10 PM, but you had to be 21 to sell all the way until 2. I believe that those rules were standard for all alcohol sellers. For gas stations - no lighted window signs advertising beer, no beer displays (stacks of 18-packs, for example) within something like 10 feet of any entrance door, and no standalone ice barrels of single-serve cans or bottles.
Still have no-liquor on Sunday laws in effect. No bars either, unless they have a full-ish menu. Many places get around this by selling frozen pizza by the slice kinda thing.
It’s ridiculous - thank Og I live within 10 minutes of the Illinois border!
Still no package alcohol sales in Chicago on Sunday until, I think, 11:00 am. Every once in a while I’ll try to buy a bottle of 3-Buck Chuck at Trader Joe’s on a Sunday at 10:45, and have to go to the back of the line.
My hometown (Evanston, IL, home of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union) didn’t allow package liquor sales until I was in college. And for the longest time, restaurants could only sell beer and wine (the few that were lucky enough to get licenses), and only if you ordered a full meal. And they wouldn’t bring you the alcohol until they brought you the food.
In Bloomington, IN when I was in grad school you couldn’t buy alcohol on Sunday or Election Day.
20 years ago, when I lived near Charlotte, NC, you couldn’t just go to a bar if you wanted to drink. You had to become a member of a “club”- sign up at the door- and then you could drink.
When I was growing up in Massachusetts in the '60s, I’m pretty sure that gas stations, restaurants and drugstores were exempt from the Sunday blue laws. And as far as I know, you could buy anything available in any of those places.
Another notable exemption was that “gift shops” were allowed to open on Sundays, maybe because so much of Cape Cod’s commerce was derived from weekend travelers buying plastic lobsters, saltwater taffy and bayberry candles. How the line was drawn between “gft shops” and other stores, I don’t know.
You risked eternal damnation if you bought a frying pan. 
No one remembers living under Blue Laws? At one time, at least 20 states and parts of Canada had them until the 1980’s. It was a major PITA.