Illegal to work on Sunday?

March 25th 2007

A week ago, Capital (a 60 minutes type news show) talked about the issue of working on Sunday in France. Believe it or not, it’s illegal except in certain conditions. I didn’t see all of the report, it’s actually a common topic that I’ve seen before. So I don’t know all of these conditions, but in general it’s not legal to work on Sundays. I was quite surprised at this when I first came to France, on Sundays almost all the stores are closed. And since stores usually close between 7-8pm during the week, that means 60 million people going shopping on Saturdays. Combine that with the limited space for developing new stores in the Paris area and you’ve got the most crowded stores I’ve ever seen. In the US people avoid “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving, which is taken as a holiday resulting in the biggest shopping day of the year). Here in France, every Saturday puts “Black Friday” to shame. And don’t even mention the Saturdays in December!

So to alleviate this problem, some stores are starting to open on Sundays. Now there is the question about if it’s legal or not. One of the laws says if it’s in a tourist area then the store can be open. Store owners tend to exaggerate that one especially in Paris. Here in our town, the hardware store is open and that’s it except for the grocery stores. I don’t know how they get away with it. Some stores risk the fines and some just go ahead and pay them. Like Ikea, the big furniture store. They’re open every Sunday.

Now having a law against being open on Sunday seems very strange to me, but even stranger than that is that many stores find ways around the law. (That’s one skill the French have honed to perfection.) I don’t like the government telling me what I can and cannot do, as long as no one is hurt (including animals). So who could possibly be hurt by having a store open on Sunday? I can think of a few reasons:

If one store opens on Sundays then its competitors will be forced to follow. That could set off a chain reaction resulting in all stores open on Sundays. That would mean the owners would have to pay more in salaries. But would it increase sales? On one hand I think sales would not increase, if you’re going to buy something you’d be forced to buy it on Saturday. It’s not like I say “if the store’s open today I’m going to go buy that watch, otherwise I’ll wait another year!” But on the other hand, people get bored on Sundays and if they go to the mall they’d be more likely to purchase something than if they were staying at home. So I guess it could increase sales.

The more I analyze it the more I don’t see the problem. Neither do my non-French friends. The Monday after the reportage, a Brazilian friend asked me “Did you see Capital last night? Can you believe it?” At least it provided us with some good material for discussion.

So what do you think? If you’re American, would you like to see all stores in the US closed on Sundays? And if you’re French, would you like to see all stores open?

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Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Fabrice on March 26, 2007 18:33

    Hi,

    As a french, I *would like* to see stores open on sundays, naturally… but trade unions do not want to evolve. Another french trouble in fact !

  2. Anonymous on March 27, 2007 14:55

    as an American, I enjoy the stores being open on Sunday. Sometimes after church I run errands which ususally includes grocery shopping. I don’t see a real problem with stores being open on Sunday as long as the employees who want that day off to spend with God & family has that option without fear of “paybacks” from the boss or other employees. And yes, before you deny it, there are forms of “paybacks” at certain times about certain things.

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