Most states still have blue laws on the books but they are not enforced much anymore, unfortunately.
A law was passed here last year to force all retail outlets with less than 20 employees to close on Good Friday.
Large businesses have for years claimed that consumers have the "right" to shop whenever they want, and therefore they should be allowed to stay open 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Little has said of the rights of the low paid shop employees who have to work all shifts with scant regard to their life outside their job - it apparently being assumed that the can't afford one.
GG
Large businesses have for years claimed that consumers have the "right" to shop whenever they want, and therefore they should be allowed to stay open 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Little has said of the rights of the low paid shop employees who have to work all shifts with scant regard to their life outside their job - it apparently being assumed that the can't afford one.
GG
Jake,
Yes, it is unfortunate. We seem to have lost what our great Country was founded on and we are sliding down a dangerous, slippery slope.
Yes, it is unfortunate. We seem to have lost what our great Country was founded on and we are sliding down a dangerous, slippery slope.
GG,
What the heck has the amount of employees have to do with it? Otherwise, let big business have its way? Sad state of affairs, is it not?
What the heck has the amount of employees have to do with it? Otherwise, let big business have its way? Sad state of affairs, is it not?
You are so right - I love it!quote:Originally posted by Serenity:
Yes, it is unfortunate. We seem to have lost what our great Country was founded on and we are sliding down a dangerous, slippery slope.
You are so right - it is not!quote:Originally posted by Serenity:
What the heck has the amount of employees have to do with it? Otherwise, let big business have its way? Sad state of affairs, is it not?
As best as I can see, laws fall into one of two categories:
Now, as long as the law protects me from something that *I* want to be protected from – good idea; all the rest – bad idea.(BIG GRIN)
Example: being protected from do-gooders – good idea; being protected from myself – BAD idea.
- They make people do something they don’t want to.
- They prevent people from doing something they want to.
Now, as long as the law protects me from something that *I* want to be protected from – good idea; all the rest – bad idea.(BIG GRIN)
Example: being protected from do-gooders – good idea; being protected from myself – BAD idea.
Sorry Serenity, I got it the wrong way around, didn't I! It's the businesses with MORE than 20 employees that have to close on Good Friday!
GG
GG
It's easy to do, and I have done.quote:Originally posted by Gardengnome:
Sorry Serenity, I got it the wrong way around, didn't I!
GG, oh well, still, why not all? I mean what is good for the goose, surely is good for the gaunder! Governments!! Yikes!
We may have reached some common ground – bound to happen. Might be a good idea to give the low-paid preachers the weekend off so they could spend more time with their families (alter boys might appreciate it). Hospitals might be a bit extreme, but then what the hay. I definitely would like to have the police not working – at least when I’m speeding. [another BIG GRIN]quote:Originally posted by Serenity:
GG, oh well, still, why not all? I mean what is good for the goose, surely is good for the gaunder! Governments!! Yikes!
quote:Originally posted by Serenity:
When I was young, we had a "Blue Law". You were not allowed to have a business open on Sunday or Holidays.
That used to be the case here, and also each town had its 'early closing day', usually Tuesday or Wednesday when all shops closed at lunchtime. Both have now become very diluted - all the supermarkets and DIY sheds tend to open on Sundays, and most shops do a 6-day week. Can be useful, though.
Mike, I had forgotten, we used to have stores that closed on Thursday at noon! That has been gone for many years.
Up to the seventies in Australia all shops closed on Saturday at 12 noon and all of Sunday. Pubs closed at 6pm every day and homeward bound workers had an hour to sink a pot or two (or five) in what became known as the "six-o-clock swill". Only licensed premises could sell liquor with meals after that time and not to 'take-away'.
Now it's pretty much open slather and 'shopping' is one of the major pastimes of people on the weekend, rather a sad and unproductive activity, I think. The majority of folk are living beyond their means and there's bound to ba a very painful 'correction' (as the pundits put it) one day.
GG
Now it's pretty much open slather and 'shopping' is one of the major pastimes of people on the weekend, rather a sad and unproductive activity, I think. The majority of folk are living beyond their means and there's bound to ba a very painful 'correction' (as the pundits put it) one day.
GG
Who needs to shop, as long as you have Internet and Fed-X.
What puzzles me Mike, is what advantages are inherent in closing on a Tuesday or Wednesday (or Monday or Thursday for that matter) afternoon?
Friday or Saturday make sense (sort of) in relation to the weekend. There must have been a purpose (then again, we are talking about government here aren't we).
Perhaps these were chosen as being the slackest days business-wise - least impact on earnings.
GG
Friday or Saturday make sense (sort of) in relation to the weekend. There must have been a purpose (then again, we are talking about government here aren't we).
Perhaps these were chosen as being the slackest days business-wise - least impact on earnings.
GG
There never seems to be a shortage of people that predict future problems. I guess like bad news, bad forecasts sell.quote:Originally posted by Gardengnome:
The majority of folk are living beyond their means and there's bound to ba a very painful 'correction' (as the pundits put it) one day.
quote:Originally posted by Gardengnome:
What puzzles me Mike, is what advantages are inherent in closing on a Tuesday or Wednesday (or Monday or Thursday for that matter) afternoon?
Friday or Saturday make sense (sort of) in relation to the weekend. There must have been a purpose (then again, we are talking about government here aren't we).
Perhaps these were chosen as being the slackest days business-wise - least impact on earnings.
GG
Hi GG
Yes - I think that was probably the reason. At those times many people would be working on Saturday morning, so could only shop Sat afternoon. Whan I started work, it used to be painful having to work all day on a Saturday while other people were free and enjoying themselves (or shopping
)It became my driving ambition to eventually get a job where I did not have to work at all on a Saturday - I got there in about 1977!
Quite a few of our supermarkets now open 24 hours a day!
quote:Originally posted by Rick:
Who needs to shop, as long as you have Internet and Fed-X.
SWMBO, Rick!
"OLD" IS WHEN..... You don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.
It’s kind of nice working on the weekends and having the weekdays free to go shopping (& stuff) – a lot less people in the stores & stuff), and the traffic is much improved.quote:Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
It became my driving ambition to eventually get a job where I did not have to work at all on a Saturday - I got there in about 1977!
Yes Mike, I agree. I worked Saturday mornings up till the mid seventies and hated it - especially when hungover after a late Friday night!
Unfortunately we didn't have a break during the week but we did get one Saturday off every month.
GG
Unfortunately we didn't have a break during the week but we did get one Saturday off every month.
GG
What were you drinking?quote:Originally posted by Gardengnome:
especially when hungover after a late Friday night!
alcohol?
R2
R2
I remember those kind of mornings; they were usually Thursdays for me as we had our "Wednesday Night Drunks" when I was stationed on Crete. Rum and Mountain Dew, ugh!
It’s been awhile since I was in England (most of the V1’s had stopped by then), but I remember being non-plused by the retail options (qualify that to grocery stores) there. The hours, prices and selection left a little too much to be desired – although the employees all had quaint accents, and were very pleasant to talk to. I’ve been told (is hearsay admissible in this court?) that those things haven’t changed much, at least in relationship to the states. I also remember (that’s a “seem to”) that the liquor stores were owned/operated by the government. I may have gotten England mixed up with some other country (although I was fairly impressed to learn that just across the Channel, all the children are taught to speak French at a very early age), but it seems like it was the land of the pub.
I’ve been told (again with the hearsay) that the states is somewhat of a retailing paradise, and that a place like Mall of America helps to support that “I’ve been told”.
I’ve been told (again with the hearsay) that the states is somewhat of a retailing paradise, and that a place like Mall of America helps to support that “I’ve been told”.
(… American retailing continued)
>> here <<
Excerpts from a 60 Minutes segment (can supply the link for anyone self-assured enough to ask for it):
It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as much as they spend attending professional sporting events, buying music or going out to the movies.
Consumer demand is so strong that it has seduced some of America's biggest brand names, and companies like General Motors, Marriott and Time Warner are now making millions selling erotica to America. Last November, Correspondent Steve Kroft reported on this billion-dollar industry.
According to Fishbein, there are well over 800 million rentals of adult videotapes and DVDs in video stores across the country. “And I don't think that it's 800 guys renting a million tapes each,” he says.
In 2002, Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, pulled in $50 million from adult programming. All the nation's top cable operators, from Time Warner to Cablevision, distribute sexually explicit material to their subscribers. But you won't read about it in their annual reports. Same with satellite providers like EchoStar and DirecTV, which is owned by Hughes Technology, a subsidiary of General Motors.
How much does DirecTV make off of adult product?
“They don't break the number out. But I would guess they'd probably get a couple hundred million, maybe as much as $500 million, off of adult entertainment, in a broad sense,” says Dennis McAlpine, a partner in McAlpine Associates, who has tracked the entertainment industry for over two decades.
Then there are the big hotel chains: Hilton, Marriot, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn, which all offer adult films on in-room pay-per-view television systems. And they are purchased by a whopping 50 percent of their guests, accounting for nearly 70 percent of their in-room profits. One hotel owner said, "We have to have it. Our guests demand it.”
Stamp that, “Made in America”, or perhaps “Only in America”.
(paraphrasing) The U.S. government created Internet so that incase of nuclear war government employees would still have access to pornography.
>> here <<
Excerpts from a 60 Minutes segment (can supply the link for anyone self-assured enough to ask for it):
It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as much as they spend attending professional sporting events, buying music or going out to the movies.
Consumer demand is so strong that it has seduced some of America's biggest brand names, and companies like General Motors, Marriott and Time Warner are now making millions selling erotica to America. Last November, Correspondent Steve Kroft reported on this billion-dollar industry.
According to Fishbein, there are well over 800 million rentals of adult videotapes and DVDs in video stores across the country. “And I don't think that it's 800 guys renting a million tapes each,” he says.
In 2002, Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, pulled in $50 million from adult programming. All the nation's top cable operators, from Time Warner to Cablevision, distribute sexually explicit material to their subscribers. But you won't read about it in their annual reports. Same with satellite providers like EchoStar and DirecTV, which is owned by Hughes Technology, a subsidiary of General Motors.
How much does DirecTV make off of adult product?
“They don't break the number out. But I would guess they'd probably get a couple hundred million, maybe as much as $500 million, off of adult entertainment, in a broad sense,” says Dennis McAlpine, a partner in McAlpine Associates, who has tracked the entertainment industry for over two decades.
Then there are the big hotel chains: Hilton, Marriot, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn, which all offer adult films on in-room pay-per-view television systems. And they are purchased by a whopping 50 percent of their guests, accounting for nearly 70 percent of their in-room profits. One hotel owner said, "We have to have it. Our guests demand it.”
Stamp that, “Made in America”, or perhaps “Only in America”.
(paraphrasing) The U.S. government created Internet so that incase of nuclear war government employees would still have access to pornography.
Crete, Mike? RAF Akrotiri?
GG
GG
quote:RAF Akrotiri
is in Cyprus methinks?!
R2
quote:Crete, Mike? RAF Akrotiri?
GG,
Actually, it I was that mentioned Crete; I was stationed at U. S. Naval Detachment, Souda Bay, Crete.It was/is located a few kilometers outsde of Chania on the north coast of Crete. Just an overnight ferry ride to Athens.
Sorry Dave, it was late at night and I wasn't thinking straight. Sounds, on the face of it, a pfairly pleasant detachment.
GG
GG
It was a fairly nice duty station; our maim
n function was as an emergency or back-up landing field for the U. S. Navy. The rest of the NATO air arm used the Greek Air Force base on the other side of the runway. I did get to see some interesting Allied airplanes; the British Vulcan bomber especially when the pilot decided to showoff by "standing it on its tail" in a high-performance takeoff. Let me state that it left town in a real hurry!
n function was as an emergency or back-up landing field for the U. S. Navy. The rest of the NATO air arm used the Greek Air Force base on the other side of the runway. I did get to see some interesting Allied airplanes; the British Vulcan bomber especially when the pilot decided to showoff by "standing it on its tail" in a high-performance takeoff. Let me state that it left town in a real hurry!
The big Vulcans were one of the few military aircraft that actually had more power than they needed for the job at hand. They never needed RATO packs. That would have been an impressive (and very noisy!) departure.
GG
GG
One more shopping day (depending on origin of passport):
>> Click here <<
>> Click here <<
quote:That would have been an impressive (and very noisy!) departure.
Oh, it was! Even without the RATO packs.
Well, yesterday we had our annual bus roadeo; lassoing one isn't too bad, but throwing and hog-tieing it...
The hard part about catching a bus is getting someone to throw it to you!
GG
GG
I hadn't thought about that aspect of mass transit before.
And very likely never will again, I'll warrant.
GG
GG