His daily bread

[Gob]

France's top baguette baker has attacked his country's attitude to work after he was ordered to stop opening his shop seven days a week.



Stephane Cazenave has been told he will face a €1,500 (£1,100) fine if he fails to adhere to a law which states that all shops selling bread must close one day a week. Mr Cazenave, who runs a bakery in Saint-Paul-les-Dax, in south-west France, says the 1999 prefectural order means he will lose €250,000 (£185,000) a year and will be forced to lay off some of his 22 staff, who work five-day weeks.

The ruling has sparked a debate in France, with many viewing the baker's plight as a symbol of all that is wrong with anti-business regulations. Currently French MPs are debating a bill seeking to cut red tape and inject more flexibility into the French labour market. Mr Cazenave, who won 'best baguette of France' award last year, told TV channel France 3: 'I am treated like a thug just because I asked to work. Working shouldn't be a crime in France. 'I opened seven days a week three and a half years ago. I create jobs and wealth and I don't see why one would hinder me doing so.'

k

[rubato]

Those lazy inefficient Germans are even worse! Until very recently they required nearly all stores to close at 2:30pm Saturday and stay closed all Sunday.

yrs,
rubato

[TPFKA@W]

I am old enough to remember when everything was closed on Sundays here.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yeah, me too... only, not here but in the UK. Regardless of the religious aspect, I've often thought it a pity that closing all shops one day of the weekend doesn't happen any more. Things were a lot quieter. Oh and I just remembered in my parents' general store in Dover 1962-66 how on a Sunday we had to cover up certain things which were not allowed to be sold, even though the shop could open. I think it was cigarettes.

[Gob]

I remember when (I think) it was Tescos opened the first supermarket in Llanelli, and were open on Sunday when the new trading laws came in, the first shop to do so. Everybody turned out in their Sunday best to go shopping.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Fancy that

Sunday trading in England and Wales was not generally permitted until 1994. This meant that shops such as department stores and supermarkets were not able to open legally. A number of specialist outlets were able to open legally, including garden centres, small "corner" or family-run shops, and chemists

[Gob]

Heh, they must have been breaking the law in that case, as I remember that from back in the 70's.

PS. Just tweeted this question to the local rag; "What and where and when was Llanelli's first supermarket opened?"

[oldr_n_wsr]

I worked in the game room in Roosevelt Field way back when (late 70's). That and a food stand were the only things open in the mall on Sundays. Sundays were nice quiet days and I didn't mind working at all.

[Guinevere]

Maryland didn't repeal it's blue laws and allow Sunday shopping until the mid 1980s. And Massachusetts just allowed liquor sales on Sunday (but only after 12pm) in the last decade.


I didn't mind not being able to shop on Sunday - although it would make Saturday that much busier.

[oldr_n_wsr]

A boon to alcoholics was finally being able to buy booze on sunday. Less planning on saturday needed. Although the 12 noon start was sometimes a hassle.

[Lord Jim]

To those of you who are geezering about the "good old days" when it was impossible to buy things you needed on a Sunday, let me say that I don't miss that at all...

Anymore than I miss disco music, gas lines, leisure suits, or the Carter Administration...

[oldr_n_wsr]

Back then the only thing you needed on Sunday was a bagel and the newspaper in the morning and an Italian friend for the rest of the day. Italians always had the best Sunday dinners/feasts which started at noon and ended about 11pm.