>In a message dated 4/17/2006 10:38:14 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>mpollak at panix.com writes:
>
>All the big stores are closed, and I have a hard time believing they'd do
>> it if they didn't have to.
>
>That's only because its Easter Sunday. All other Sundays everything
>is open at least until 5:00 PM
Aha! It's my ancestral county, esp its shopping hub, Paramus.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law>
Bergen County, New Jersey
One of the last remaining blue laws in the United States that covers virtually all selling is found in Bergen County, New Jersey. It has produced the ironic situation that one of the largest and most popular commercial shopping cores of the New York metropolitan area is almost completely closed on Sunday (grocery stores are allowed to operate). The county is not considered a particularly religious area. Bergen County has significant Jewish and Muslim populations whose observant members would not be celebrating their Sabbath on Sunday. The substantial Orthodox Jewish minority is placed in the position of being unable to shop either on Sunday (due to the blue laws) or on Saturday (due to religious observance).
However, repeated attempts to lift the law have failed as many locals either see keeping the law on the books as a protest against the growing trend toward increasing hours and days of commercial activity in American society or enjoy the sharply reduced traffic on major roads and highways on Sunday that is normally seen the other days of the week. In fact, a large part of the reason for maintaining the laws has been a desire for relative peace and quiet one day of the week by many Bergen County residents. This desire for relative peace is most apparent in Paramus, New Jersey, where most of the largest shopping malls of Bergen County are located, and which has blue laws of its own that are even more restrictive than those enforced by Begen County.