Most stores shut in Poland as Sunday trade ban begins
By Vanessa Gera The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland — A new Polish law banning almost all trade on Sundays has taken effect, with large supermarkets and most other retailers closed for the first time since liberal shopping laws were introduced in the 1990s after communism’s collapse.
The change is stirring up a range of emotions in a country where many feel workers are exploited under the liberal regulations of the past years and want them to have a day of rest. But many Poles also experience consumer freedom as one of the most tangible benefits of the free market era and resent the new limit.
In Hungary, another ex-communist country, a ban on Sunday trade imposed in 2015 was so unpopular that authorities repealed it the next year. Elsewhere in Europe, however, including Germany and Austria, people have long been accustomed to the day of commercial rest and appreciate the push it gives them to escape the compulsion to shop for quality time with family and friends instead.
The law was proposed by a leading trade union, Solidarity, which says employees deserve Sundays off. It found the support of the conservative and pro-Catholic ruling party, Law and Justice, whose lawmakers passed the legislation. The influential Catholic church, to which more than 90 percent of Poles belong, has welcomed the change.
5 comments:
Don't worry, it (return to blue laws) won't happen here in Georgia. The convention business in Atlanta is big stuff, big dollars (which helps subsidize the rest of Georgia, such as school funding), as are sports contests like the NFL--you think we are going to shut down the concessions at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on a Sunday? Think we are going to shut down the nation's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson, on a Sunday? What about the gas stations along I-75 and 95---no Sunday driving? Too bad if you run out of gas on way back from vacation? What about hotels at the beaches---closed on Sundays? If stores wish to close on Sunday, more power to them, but that should be their decision, not the state of Georgia and certainly not the federal government! Atlanta for one has a fairly large Jewish population---should we tell them too bad if your Sabbath is Saturday, you can't open your stores on Sunday because of the Christian Sabbath??
Malls here in the Atlanta area usually are closed Sunday mornings but open around 12 or 1230---allows time for folks to go to church. Or if you are Catholic (and in some instances, Episcopal), you can go Saturday night. The malls get pretty decent crowds on Sundays (I am one of them every now and then)---and I don't think they would open for (shortened) Sunday hours if they lost money on it!
The Georgia House this morning passed a "brunch bill" that would allow restaurants to start serving alcohol at 11 am instead of 1230pm the current law---that way some of us can beat the Baptists to the early brunch!
Bee here:
But Father, that's closing the churches of the followers of the world. They won't take too kindly to that!
(Ever notice the Christian churches are near empty on Sunday, but the shopping centers and stores are full all Sunday long?)
God bless.
Bee
I heartily endorse the idea of the day of rest, but the world is busier and more complex than it used to be.
Some people work Sundays -- cops, nurses, firefighters, many others. Some folks work Tuesday through Saturday and want to get errands done on Sunday and chill Monday. People work the night shift or the day shift and so on and so on.
I go to Saturday afternoon Mass, which means i have more time to get other things done on Sunday.
It's certainly not government's place to tell people which day to take a break, especially based on a religious consideration that won't apply to everybody.
And when ALL the stores were closed on Sundays, there was no murder, no marital infidelity, no extortion, no cheating on tests, no, drug abuse, no extra-martial sex, no etc etc etc.
Poland is playing a dangerous game of populism/nationalism and will, I suspect, soon regret it.
Znowu uczynić Polskę wielką...?
And when Georgia businesses & bars were closed on Sundays, blacks often couldn’t enter them any day of the week. Don’t confuse theocracy with morality.
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