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Blue law exceptions (Can sell on Sunday)

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Editor:
Items a business can sell on Sunday in Hackensack:

(*indicates that I think this may be a good business on Main, Anderson, Hudson or elsewhere in Hackensack.  One advantage:  many other municipalities like Paramus don't allow any business on Sunday. Example: a hardware store on Main Street may be the only one open for miles around.  Some merchants on Main Street already take advantage of these exceptions.)

Art*
Art supplies (painting, sculpture, photographs)*
Automotive supplies and accessories (but not new or used cars)*
Beauty supplies and barber supplies*
Boats and boating supplies* (on River Street somewhere)
Books*
Cameras*
Cassettes (presumably VCR and DVD)
Cleansers
Chemicals
Cosmetics and perfume*
Coal
Dental supplies*
Drugs (legal, of course)
Dry cleaning supplies
Electrical supplies (but not appliances)
Eyeglasses*
Fishing supplies* (Talk to the Riverkeeper)
Flowers*
Food
Garden supplies*(combine with Hardware)
Gasoline
Greeting cards
Hair products*
Hardware* (combine with Garden supplies)
Hospital supplies*
Ice
Iron
Janitor’s supplies
Jewelry*
Laundry supplies
Leather goods (such as luggage and pocketbooks, but not clothing)
Magazines
Medical equipment*
Metals
Musical instruments and music*
Newspapers
Oil
Optical equipment*
Paint*
Paintings
Paper goods
Party goods*
Pets and supplies*
Railroad equipment
Rope
Shoe supplies (but not shoes)
School supplies*
Scrap and waste products
Sporting goods (but not sport clothing or sneakers)*
Stationary*
Surgical equipment*
Textiles and sewing supplies (but not sewing machines)
Tobacco
Toys, games, hobby equipment* (where is this?)
Undertakers supplies
Wallpaper
Wiring supplies

40A:64-1.  Certain Sunday sales prohibited

Click here to find the statute.

Kaffekat:
This is something I have often wondered about -
I grew up with these laws, worked them and I still have a hard time explaining them.

I worked in retail for some years in Hackensack NJ.
Since then living in Ca, I have tried to explain the Blue Laws to people out here and have consistently flopped.

I remember shopping in Modells, Essex St - and certain areas being blocked off.
Working in retail for a while afterwards, I admit it. I loved it. But I still can't explain it.

Can anyone explain the Blue Laws? 

ericmartindale:
OK, here's a blue laws explanation. It's all about STANDARDS and QUALITY OF LIFE. It's not really about religion, although that is the legal basis for the blue laws. Here in NJ, especially Bergen County, we set certain standards that the rest of the world doesn't have, in order to protect our quality of life.  For instance, NJ is the only state that doesn't allow motorists to pump their own gas. This is so we can sit in the climate controlled environment of our car (during the snow and cold, rainstorms, or humid heat) and be serviced. Why the rest of the country doesn't want this is mind-boggling. We also spend more money per pupil on education than any other state, and that's the high standard we demand.

Back to the Blue Laws --- Quality of life is more important than retail, at least on one day of the week. We need one day of the week where the focus of our lives is not the materialism of the world, but is instead ourselves. For some people, it means going to church, but to others it means spending time with family and friends, hiking or walking in the park, reading a book, or just relaxing, all without the madness of traffic jams polluting the air with smoke and noise, and without the greed of consumerism. This special day, this "day of rest", doesn't mean shopping. For young adults who work retail, this day of rest means not having to work on Sunday, and that's part of their quality of life to spend time with family and friends.  Otherwise, they'd all be forced to work weekends, and would have two days off during the week, out of sync with everyone else's schedule.

There is too much commercialism and materialism in our society, to the detriment of all of us. I am proud to live in the last remaining county in America, Bergen County, that has the sanity to place human quality of life needs above commercialism, even if it is only one day per week. By the way, I'm totally against billboards and cluttered advertising in neighborhood locations for exactly the same reasoning --- too much intrusion of commercialism into our daily life. I think all the other counties in NJ and America should look and learn from our example.  I think it's funny that the good folk in the Bible Belt of America look down upon us  as a bunch of aethists,  yet in Bergen County we have the blue laws that keep stores closed, and they don't......lol. 

I remember a few years back a conservative-looking couple with Midwestern license plates on their car stopped me at a red light in Paramus, and asked why all the malls were closed. "Has there been some sort of disaster, we have the radio on and everything seems normal", they said. I told them, half-jokingly: "Today is Sunday, the world was created in six days, and the Lord wants Sunday to be the day of rest. It's a day to worship God and spend time with your family and friends, it's not a day for shopping. You're in Bergen County, New Jersey, this is the law here, and this is how we want it to be". They looked at me as if it was some sort of epiphany, smiled with contentment, and drove away.

Editor:
I found this definition online:

blue laws
n. state or local laws which prohibit certain activities, particularly entertainment, sports or drinking on Sunday, to honor the Christian Sabbath. They were employed in the New England colonies controlled by the puritans who kept the Sabbath sacred. "Blue" was slang for puritanical. In most cases blue laws have been repealed, but vestiges remain at least informally.

Kaffekat:
Thanks to both Eric Martindale and the Editor for their explanation!

As I said I grew up with the Blue Laws. I loved them.
To this day each and every time I go to a store on a Sunday I feel... strange...

I no longer work in retail today. But I remember being grateful that we had the Blue Laws.
It gave me a chance, put me in step with the rest of the world. There was One Day that I knew that I was off, was not working.
One day that I knew I could count on; be with my family, go to church, a day of rest or whatever, a day when I knew I could do.... Do what I needed to do.

To this day: I still avoid the shops on Sunday. Whether you are religious or no. It is....
wonderful to know that you can count on that particular day off; whether it is to go to church, spend it with family or just laze in bed or clean your house.

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