A year later, and no blues

It’s been one year since the Aiken County Council voted to punt the Sunday Blue Laws – laws that kept some retail stores closed until 1:30 p.m. on Sundays.

The laws were based on Christian tenets of keeping Sunday as a day of rest and worship.

Opponents of the blue laws argued that shoppers were heading to Augusta on Sunday mornings, costing us valuable tax revenue that would help fund the schools. Proponents of the laws argued that doing away with them would create a mass exodus from the church pews into the store aisles.

And, not surprisingly, a year later we find neither our schools awash in new cash nor church pews empty in record paces.

The best reason for having wiped the blue laws – they simply made no sense any more. Over time, they morphed into a confusing hodgepodge of unrelated restrictions and head-scratching inconsistencies. Some stores opted just not to enforce them. Others tried to enforce them the best they could but were often uninformed or incorrect on enforcement.

It also put other businesses at unfair economic disadvantages. An office supply store could not open before 1:30, but the drugstore next to it could, selling many of the same items locked behind the doors of their neighbor.

Wisely, the government stepped in and wiped the slate clean. Let the businesses decide, they said. Some stores have stayed closed on Sundays. Others kept the 1:30 opening. Most moved their opening hours back. But the key to this: government made a decision NOT to make this decision for them. This would be a decision between retailer and consumer. “Government” – these days more than ever – gets its fair share of criticism for meddling in matters they need not be part of. In this case, however, Aiken County Council got it right by getting out of the business of setting opening times for stores.