Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!stewartw From: stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) Newsgroups: ont.general Subject: Re: Sunday shopping Message-ID: <7788@cognos.UUCP> Date: 27 Dec 89 15:54:45 GMT References: <656@crk56.bnr.ca> <7784@cognos.UUCP> <259461EC.6878@telly.on.ca> Reply-To: stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) Distribution: ont Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada Lines: 76 In article <259461EC.6878@telly.on.ca> evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) writes: >In article <7784@cognos.UUCP> stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) writes: >> Do you know what most people in stores are doing? I bet you think >>they are shopping. Turns out that many of the people who walk into >>a store are just there to look around ... basically entertaining >>themselves. >Has someone told the Bay about this "fact"? In the "Ottawa Citizen" they interviewed people about Sunday shopping. It is astonishing to see how many people said stuff like "I understand how families would like a day off, but we need something to do on Sundays." >On this basis, the stores could qualify immediately for Sunday opening. >Entertainment facilities are specifically exempt from the closing laws. >Can they use your posting as proof? Well, if the primary purpose of shopping was to entertain I suspect we would be charged admission at the door. No the stores are there for another reason. I simply resent losing my family life to people who don't know what else they can do on Sunday. I am more sympathetic for the few shoppers who really need something. >>The majority of people who would go into a store on >>Sunday are not IN NEED. >other day of the week. I don't think the major chains want so badly to >open Sundays so that the world can just browse... This assumes that the major chains want to be open. The Bay wants to be open, but there are many others that do not. The entire Comark chain (contains Olgilvies, Robinsons, Brettons, Clark Shoes, Irene Hill ...) is opposed to Sunday shopping. Many local retail chains in Ottawa (for example Bleekers) are also opposed to Sunday shopping. The malls however do want to be open. The contracts that stores must sign to enter a mall would require those stores located in the malls to be open -- whether they want to or not! >>I would argue that we have plenty of extended shopping hours already. > >Plenty for you, that is. Maybe those extended hours have caused hardship >for some retail workers already. But you don't care, because we haven't >crossed YOUR line yet. I don't disagree with the requirement for some extended shopping hours, but I think some reasonable limits should be put in place. The line has to be drawn somewhere. Malls could conceivably force stores to be open 24 hours per day. Surely this can't be considered a good thing. So where do we draw the line? I think one day off per week is a pretty reasonable line. Yes, this affects me personally, but I'm a consumer too. What this discussion is clearly boiling down to is pro-Sunday shoppers saying "Me, Me, Me." Pro-no-Sunday-shopping people are saying "Me, Me, Me." We are all standing around debating who has the more righteous cause. Consumers are not interested in the minor side effects of Sunday shopping (higher prices and poorer service). Retail families don't care about being able to shop in Sunday. Perhaps the only reasonable way to evaluate this is to find out what the majority of the retailers want. Remember that the action of the majority of the retailers can be dictated by a minority in order to remain competitive. Stewart >You should have stopped when you were ahead. Hopefully this time I have :-) > Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: uunet!cognos!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario "The bird for the day is .... nanday conure." CANADA K1G 3Z4