PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Here in the birthplace of Thanksgiving, where the Pilgrims first gave thanks in 1621 for their harvest and their survival, some residents are giving thanks this year for something else: the Colonial-era blue laws that prevent retailers from opening their doors today.
While shoppers in the rest of the country will skip out on Thanksgiving to go to Wal-Mart or Kmart, William Wrestling Brewster, whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower and participated in that first Thanksgiving, will limit his activities to enjoying a traditional meal in Plymouth with his extended family at his parents’ house.
“Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks for all you have,” said Brewster, 47, who runs a computer repair business. “I cringe to think what society is doing to itself,” he said of the mercantile mania that threatens one of the least commercial holidays.
Some of the nation’s biggest retailers — Sears, Target and Toys R Us among them — announced this month that they would move up their predawn Black Friday door-buster sales to Thanksgiving Day or move up their existing Thanksgiving sales even earlier today. Wal-Mart, which has already been open on Thanksgiving for many years, is moving up tonight’s 10 p.m. bargain specials to 8 p.m.
But in Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the stores will sit dark until the wee hours of Friday. Even Wal-Mart will not open in Maine until just after midnight Friday or in Massachusetts or Rhode Island until 1 a.m.
New England’s blue laws were established by early settlers to enforce proper behavior on Sundays, ensuring time for worship and a day of rest. (The origin of the term is unclear. Some have said the laws were printed on blue paper, while others have said the word “blue” was meant to disparage those like the “blue noses” who imposed rigid moral codes on others.)
Over decades, many of those laws — which banned commerce, entertainment and alcohol sales, among other things — were tossed aside or ignored, or exemptions were granted. In some cases, the statutes were extended to holidays and barred retailers specifically from operating on Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Maine granted an exception to L.L. Bean, whose store in Freeport is open around the clock every day, including Christmas.
Nationwide, a protest is developing against Thanksgiving Day sales. Workers at some stores have threatened to strike, saying the holiday openings were disrupting their family time. Several online petitions have drawn hundreds of thousands of signatures protesting the move. The stores say that many of their employees have volunteered to work on the holiday, when they will get extra pay, and that consumers want to shop early. It is not yet clear what effect the protests will have.
At the same time, one corner of New England is serving as something of a bulwark against commercialism.
Even the Retailers Association of Massachusetts is treading gently on the notion of Thanksgiving sales.
“There hasn’t been any outcry from our members over the years pushing this,” said Bill Rennie, vice president of the association.
But, as Thanksgiving shopping becomes more common, he said, “it may be time to have a discussion about it.”
Blue laws seem anachronistic when people can shop anytime online, he said.
There is also the case of simple economics. These states are already at risk of losing sales to stores in New Hampshire, which has no sales tax. Now, Rennie pointed out, they could lose even more in the holiday bargain rush when stores in New Hampshire are open and stores in Massachusetts are closed.
Still, Barry Finegold, a Massachusetts state senator whose district abuts New Hampshire, said that so far, none of the retailers in his district had asked for a change in the law.
“My phone has not been ringing off the hook,” he said. “In my opinion, it’s not a national tragedy if Wal-Mart can’t open at 8 o’clock on Thanksgiving Day.”
Even several shoppers at Plymouth’s Wal-Mart Supercenter said they did not want the store open today.
“Leave the holidays alone,” said Carole A. Maiona, 72, a retired medical records worker, as her husband wheeled a shopping cart out of the store recently. “The family should be together and not out shopping and supplying Wal-Mart or whoever with more money.”
Business, Pages 35 on 11/22/2012