Doughnuts
Doughnut holes
Glue
I remember a guy came through my line with a cantaloupe and two home enemas. Just made me wonder if there was a list or if one of those was an impulse buy.
North Dakota used to be like this; they still don’t allow stores to be open before noon on Sunday, presumably because baby Jesus would be sad.
Bergen County, NJ still has Blue (Christian) laws, where stores cannot sell some items on Sunday, including clothes and some toiletries. However, since the store I work in is owned by Hassidic Jewish people and we close two hours before sundown on Friday and stay closed for two hours after sundown on Saturday (we only open Saturday nights in the winter and spring) and are closed on certain Jewish holidays, we can sell anything on Sunday, no restrictions! And we are the only store in town who can do that. We sell a lot on Sunday!
ETA: We get asked how we can do this a lot. I’m amazed people don’t know that non-Christian businesses are exempt from blue laws.
I’m be one of those people that didn’t know. I know some laws allow for exemptions based on the generalized notion of religious beliefs, without being specific as to which religion. I’m amazed that a law on the books in the US would make specific reference to an exemption for (or for everyone except) one particular religion.
What does “non-Christian business” mean in this context?
Owned/Operated by someone who is of a religion other than Christianity?
Owned/Operated by someone who is not Christian (this would include atheists/agnostics)?
What evidence do you have to provide in order to establish that you’re non-Christian and therefore exempt?
I live about four blocks from where this took place:
https://www.tdcaa.com/node/520
The place where he bought his bleach, saw, trashbags, etc. is 1 block away from me to the south. 1 block to the east is a liquor store. I was there one night a couple of months after this murder occurred. I was standing in line behind a rather odd-acting young man who was having trouble pulling money out of his pocket. Turns out he was trying not to lift his arm because when he did a HUGE hack saw fell out of his coat and clattered to the floor. The clerk and I both backed away while the guy gathered up his saw, his change, and his liquor.
I saw a kid absolutely freak out a Dollar Tree clerk: he was about 12 and he bought a pregnancy test.
Wait, which town specifically is this? Teaneck?
I mean I’ve heard of places that don’t serve liquor on Sundays, and I’ve tried to buy beer at 12:04 am in Florida (4 minutes after the cutoff). And I live in a den of sin. But places banning non-food is new to me.
You can’t buy a car on Sunday in Indiana - does that count?
…and I’m amazed that “a Christian business” is a thing, other than one selling religious paraphernalia. Does the money have Jesus’ picture on it when you buy something at one of these “Christian businesses”?
OK, for a “mom & pop” where the owners are Christian and no one else works there, it makes at least some sense to tell them that they can’t work on Sundays. But it certainly doesn’t make sense to do that to a business with employees.
And are “Jewish businesses” forced to close on Saturdays and Jewish holidays? (And so on, for all other religions)
I’m surprised that there are still blue laws. I would think that they’d be unconstitutional.
In Paramus, at least- home to Bergen County’s largest number of shopping malls and strictest blue laws- people keep voting to keep the blue laws so as to have one day a week where they don’t have to deal with the rest of the county’s traffic.
Real sightings:
When I was working as a movie projectionist, and Kroger had just started staying open 24hrs., and I got paid nightly, I used to stop by on my way home from work to pick up stuff, around 1am, sometimes a little later.
Once, I was behind a guy who was buying nothing but a four-pack of D-cell batteries, and a big jar of Vaseline. Could have been totally innocent, but I had evil thoughts.
Another time, it was just amusing: I was behind a relatively young woman (maybe 20-21) using WIC coupons to buy like 10 cans of baby formula, and was also buying diapers, and other baby stuff, and in addition, a **very big **box of condoms. She learned her lesson.
If Jews own a store, they can pay gentile workers to keep it open on Shabbes, but that is if it is something like an auto shop, or a Best Buy franchise, or something. If it’s some kind of business of special interest to Jews, like a kosher restaurant, or a gallery that displays Jewish artists’ work, the assumption is that there would not be enough business from gentiles to make it worth keeping open on Shabbes, and moreover, you might make Jews think it’s acceptable to go there on Shabbes. So Jewish-owned shops that are also Jewish-themed are going to be closed on Shabbes.
It also is true that in many municipalities, Jewish businesses are exempt from blue laws that would otherwise force them to close on Sunday. But the assumption is that many of their patrons are Jewish, and would not be in church anyway.
Which constitutional protection would they violate though? This is done at the state level, and for blue laws like alcohol, some states have preemption, meaning that localities cannot pass stricter laws. Other states allow towns and counties to pass their own laws.
They are, but many Christians think freedom of religion only applies to them. Real freedom of religion includes freedom FROM religion, for those who prefer that. Under strict freedom of religion, the simple statement “I’m not religious” would be perfect certification for opening your business on Sunday. Christians don’t have to buy liquor on Sunday if they don’t want to.
K-Y jelly and a hamster.
I was a checkout clerk at Safeway for a couple of years.
There wasn’t anything you could buy that I would’ve been bothered about.
Customers could be embarrassed, though. The younger a condom buyer was, the more likely they would be weird about it (that stuff was locked up after too much shoplifting). Younger me understands.
Nationwide christian businesses Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A are both closed on Sundays all over the US.
If the company on its own initiative chooses to close on some days, well, that’s a business decision, and it’s their decision to make, no matter what the reasons. But that’s different than the government mandating that “Christian businesses” close on Sundays.