RE: SHOPPING / SELLING, WHO CARES?

by J. Hans vander Stoep

In all the chatter on the evils of Sunday Shopping one important segment of the retail industry is continuously overlooked. We worry and write about the desecration of the Sabbath, the destruction of family life, the unfairness to employees who have to work on Sunday if they wish to stay on par with others at their place of work when it comes to promotion and advancement. What about the christian consumer, the christian shopper, what is their responsibility?

Many of our fellow christians are storekeepers or business operators who are severely disadvantaged economically because of Sunday shopping. Their competition is in the unique position of having one business day when some of the opposition is closed.

The Canadian Christian Business Federation has a good number of retail operators in its membership. I can picture meeting one of them a few years from now.

"George, how are you doing?" "The store doing well?"

"I'm not bad thanks" he responds. George does not look as chipper and alert as I remembered. "The store, I lost it."

"What?", I say, "what happened? It was such a good location, right at the Mall entrance, you had built up an excellent clientele. Did everyone turn on you? Did the bank foreclose?"

"No", says George, "I stood by my principles. Remember the Sunday Shopping furore, when all the big chains wanted to be open on Sunday?"

I tell him: "Yes that was in 1990, the Liberal government had passed the responsibility of regulating Sunday Shopping down to the municipalities. The various Regional and town councils held hearings. The C.C.B.F. made submissions opposing Sunday Shopping to many of these Councils and their Task Forces. It was in all the papers and made front page news all summer long. The Major supermarkets, most of them multi nationals, took the law, Bill 113 The Retail Business Holidays Act, to court and it was declared unconstitutional."

"Right", George responds, "that is when it all started. We had run our business out of that location for ten years, it was doing well. People always complimented us on our service and the courteous way we looked after them. We were not the cheapest, but we did look after our customers, if there was a complaint on quality or workmanship we bent over backwards to correct a problem. The only thing that always bothered me a little was the fact that our own people, from church, seldom if ever stopped in even if only to browse. Occasionally they gave me a chance to meet or beat the competition but usually they avoided my store. Except when it was fundraising time, boy did they know our address then. It was either donate some goods to the bazaar or contribute to the local christian school, the church building fund drive, the tuition relief fund, the christian high school or the regional college that was struggling under a heavy debt load. Yes when they needed support they had no trouble finding me. We spent a fair amount of money advertising, supporting, in the regional church directories, the school newsletters and the various other christian weeklies that our people read; so it was not that we were trying to hide. But, maybe as a business owner you are more sensitive to "who shops where" than the average person who works for someone else. Like I said it never bothered me until this Sunday Shopping thing became an issue."

"What made it different then?", I asked.

"The difference was this, that which we had always taken for granted and had overlooked when we signed our agreement with our landlord and the franchisee, the section in our contracts regarding store hours. The wording was not straight forward and could be interpreted several ways. Our lease had this clause in it: "The tenant shall conduct its business in the leased Premises during such hours and on such days and evenings as the Landlord may from time to time require or permit, and at no other time. Provided that nothing shall require the Tenant to carry on its business during any period prohibited by any law or by-law regulating the hours when such business may be carried on. The Tenant agrees not to support the enacting or the renewal of any such law or by-law;". When we signed, Sunday shopping was unheard of, and we, naively perhaps, thought that clause related to evenings and holidays more than Sunday. When the "Majors" got their wish and were permitted to open on Sunday the Malls also saw this as an opportunity to create more sales and thus more revenue for them as landlord since they all take a percentage of the Gross. Our mall also opened on Sunday and the Mall Management told us in so many words that if we did not open we would be considered in default of rent, which gave them the right to kick us out. We never gave in and never opened on Sunday. It was a tiring battle, we seemed to be fighting it alone. Rather than boycott the stores that violated the Lord's Day, we saw our own people walk right by us and still patronize the stores that opened on Sunday. When our lease came up for renewal we moved out of the Mall into a strip plaza where everybody owns his own unit. This went fine for a little while but business was not as it had been we never recovered from the move. Yet if our own, so called anti Sunday Shopping fellow church members had given us more support I know it would have made a considerable difference. When Sunday Shopping was an accepted thing even our Franchisor insisted that we open on Sunday. When we refused he sent his own people in on Sunday and opened up the store, just so that he would not lose out on royalties on Sunday sales. That was the last straw. We had now virtually lost control over our own business that we spent years building up. We were powerless. We could not operate it according to our own convictions. We had no choice but to get out of business."

I sensed the pain and agony that George felt and I appreciated his disappointment with the support community. I said: "That must have been the hardest thing you have ever had to do? Did you get any support at all from any one?"

George continued: "You know our minister preached one Sunday on Revelation 12, where it talks about the woman and the beast, in particular verse 17a: "Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring-those who obey God's commandments". In that sermon he related how this Sunday shopping also was part of the devil's war making against God's elect, trying any way at all to get the believer to go against God's will for our lives, to make us more like the world everyday. It made me think of two verses in Revelation 13: 16 and 17: "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast...". I could well understand that the Scriptures had once again foretold what would happen, I just never thought it would hit that close to home."

"I can see how those parts of the Bible helped you deal with it," I replied, "but could it have been different? Are you still bitter?"

"Bitter, not any more," said George, "Could it have been different? I think so. In Romans 12 Paul urges the believers to be living sacrifices. In verse 2 he says: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind". He tells us that we are all one body, each member belonging to all the others. And then the verse that could have meant so much to where I was at: "If it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously;" You know that particularly became very important to me and much more meaningful. That was something that I could actually do in my everyday life as I went about doing my thing. I just wish that others would have supported me a bit more. I wonder if anyone ever stops to think of this when shopping? You know I'm not in business anymore but I think those verses from Romans 12 and Jesus' own words in Matthew 25: 44 and 45 are very appropriate still, particularly today".

"George", I said, "you have sure opened my eyes to a perspective on this Sunday Shopping as a matter of fact on the whole christian life style that I had not appreciated or understood before. Yes, I guess we are responsible for each other's well being, and that does not stop with financial support. I suppose we all think that the guy with the business has got it made, but that is not always so. I can understand from what you told me that being in business can sometimes be very lonely, we should show we care in a tangible way. I wish I could share what you told me with others, maybe we could do something not only about this whole Sunday Shopping thing but also do something to make the christian community a more caring and supporting community".

Like I said in the beginning this was only a picture, it does not have to be this way. You can make a difference.

Hans Vander Stoep is the Executive Director of the Canadian Christian Business Federation