2 thoughts on “Sunday shopping in distress

  1. I think you’re painting too bleak a picture. The law in it’s current form isn’t working as it was supposed to. It’s being abused because of the connotation of ‘touristic attraction and value’ that’s causing cities such as Haarlem to use it to allow their shops to open on Sundays.

    So yes, I do think the law requires changing to the way it functions. I think the current proposal is way off the mark, however. Bustling cities such as Rotterdam, Utrecht or Eindhoven – the centres of commerce for their entire area – are simply needed for their environment for exactly the reasons you’ve sketched.

    However, to allow Haarlem to open their shops on sundays on the argument of touristic value is simply absurd. The number of tourists visiting the town on an average weekend is probably countable on the fingers of a man’s hand. If such a town is allowed to open shops up on sundays, let it be on another argument entirely. Let it prove that it’s commercially viable Ñnd attributes to the welfare of it’s citizens. I for one think that a sunday without shops would finally cause people to go out and enjoy their environment more: go walking in forests, go cycling – whatever. That’s certainly a positive point for me.

    So yes, a change is required, but no, the current one is off the mark. But to start calling the government greedy bastards (where the hell did you pull that one from?) who take from the ‘hard-working dutchmen’ and give to the ‘pitiful lazy few’, is just not called for. A good argument ended with unjustified namecalling. What a shame. Bloody liberal πŸ˜‰

  2. Hehe, you should know I’m not a liberal, but I’ve always accepted most of the democratic-socialist idea’s to be the closest to my own.

    Back ontopic, I totally agree on the fact the toleration of Sunday shopping is nowadays based on the wrong arguments. Shops should be allowed to open when they want, protection for shop owners against getting overworked from opening their shop too much is not a task for our government in my opinion, I think those people are smart enough to understand the risk and to avoid it.

    Also, I think (and this is my liberal, perhaps even anti Christian side) the concept of one (obligatory) day rest is not of these times, you should be allowed to decide which day it is; thus it should not be decided for us by the government. Cycling, socializing and soforth are indeed good activities besides the daily actions, but why should they be on a Sunday?

    Besides this, I think your comment on my last sentence is valid, as I was trying to catch my feelings in a stimulating and slightly controversial conclusion. Which evidently worked well. πŸ˜‰

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