Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!maytag!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Sunday Shopping (Con)
Message-ID: <65018@looking.on.ca>
Date: 21 Dec 89 04:51:25 GMT
References: <1989Dec20.222459.21666@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Distribution: ont
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 32
Class: discussion

Do all these arguments justify the immense cost of the forced sunday
closing?  Yes, that cost is high.

Many things in society must be built not to withstand average demand,
but *peak* demand.   In particular, roads, transit, shipping systems,
and especially store staff, floor space, cash registers and PARKING space.

Look at the parking lot of a large suburban grocery story or mall.
On weekdays it sits half empty.   When is it full?  On Saturday, and
during the Christmas season.  When are all the cash registers in use?
Saturday.  When are the aisles full of people?  Saturday.

That whole parking lot, all that land, is there to handle that peak
demand.   Allow Sunday for shopping, and that peak is almost halved.
The two days in fact, become not a lot more than the evenings.

Christmas is still Christmas, but it's not as bad, since we don't
get the true peak of Saturdays in December quite as badly.

6 days is enough to buy all the food you need, that's true.  But at
the very least it requires 7/6 more traffic, parking, staff, floor
space etc.  And since the day added is as good as the peak day, it
actually requires, I would guess, something like 25% or more in greater
capacity.

Close it all sunday, but you increase traffic and turn land into
parking lots.   Shopping traffic on a Toronto Saturday can be as bad
as workday traffic.  I wonder how many people are dying in that traffic
to keep stores closed, if you want to ask the emotional question.

-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473