End of ‘blue laws’ expanded Sunday sales in South Carolina

Limits on Sunday merchandise sales went the way of Prohibition.

An influx of national retailers and newcomers unhappy with the restrictions paved the way for a piecemeal repeal across South Carolina during the past 20 years.

Stores were free to open anytime Sundays in Richland County starting in mid-1995. It took the arrival of online retailing giant Amazon to spur repeal in neighboring Lexington County in 2010.

Those restrictions were rooted in a time when Christian congregations promoted respect for Sunday worship.

“The Blue Laws (nickname for the limits) were really outdated,” said University of South Carolina retailing professor Marianne Bickle. “It really didn’t make sense any more.”

The restrictions slowly had been relaxed, barring sale of some but not all goods before 1:30 p.m. Sundays. Those guidelines were confusing and sometimes ignored.

Abolition set the stage for the subsequent OK for sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays in some areas.

Letting stores sell everything any time “adds a little more convenience” for shoppers but its impact on merchants’ bottom line is mixed, Bickle said.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 11:24 AM.