“Blue laws” as they are know are laws that are passed with the intention of making life as boring as possible for anyone who doesn’t spend Sunday on their knees in a Christian church.
When it comes to selling cars, eleven states have passed a blue law restricting the operation of dealerships on Sunday. A group in Oregon wants to make it 12 states.
Oregon’s struggling auto dealers plan to ask the Legislature to impose “blue laws” prohibiting car sales on Sunday.
The day off would help them cut costs during an economic downturn that has already put 19 Oregon dealerships out of business this year. Nationally, sales of domestic cars declined more than 35 percent in 2008.
Greg Remensperger, executive vice president of the Oregon Automobile Dealers Association, told The Oregonian newspaper his members strongly favor the measure.
They have not, BTW, found a missing book of the Bible that states that ‘thou shall not sell cars in Oregon on Sunday”. They merely want to restrict competition in their industry.
Why on earth don't they just close on Sundays? Why should it be a law? This is ridiculous.
My home state (Colorado) has one blue law left–car dealerships have to be closed on Sunday. Every once in a while some energetic new legislator introduces a bill to repeal this law, and the lobbyists come down on him or her like there is no tomorrow.
Needless to say, there is no constituency that donates money to politicians who is in favor of a repeal, and the car dealers have a moderately powerful lobby. They come up with a number of rationales.
First, they say that the prohibition is pro-consumer, because consumers want to be able to walk around a dealer’s lot on Sunday without those pesky salespeople bothering them. Yeah, right.
Second, they play the sympathy card–car salespeople work really really long hours, and they deserve a day off, and if they don’t get Sunday off, they will work seven days a week.
Their last argument is economic–they would not see an increase in sales from Sunday trading to offset increased costs.
We just got the blue law on package liquor sales on Sunday repealed this year, but I don’t see the car sales blue law going away any time soon.
It’s basic Free Enterprise. When you can’t make a profit, get a law passed that will keep anyone else from making a profit too. If you’re a really good businessman, you get a law passed that makes everyone else close while you get to stay open!
Illinois has these blue laws too. It is very un-retail: They want to save money by eliminating hours which they sell (and generating money)? If it really is for the reason they give, why don’t they close their sales room on Monday or another day of the week?