Hartsville allows early Sunday shopping for holidays

HARTSVILLE — For the second year in a row, Hartsville City Council has passed a resolution temporarily suspending part of the blue laws against Sunday morning shopping.

Shoppers can now purchase non-grocery items as early as 10 a.m. on Sundays in November and December within the city limits of Hartsville.

The resolution only affects the hours and does not affect the ban on Sunday alcohol sales.

“Particularly given the last two years’ economy, we felt anything we could do to help our local businesses we would do,” Sharman Poplava, president of the Greater Hartsville Chamber of Commerce, said.

The chamber made the request this year and last year to Council, which passed the resolution by unanimous vote Oct. 13.

“It helps the community too if people are shopping locally. The money they spend in local businesses comes back to the community,” Poplava said.

Because of the economy, most shoppers (84 percent) plan to spend less overall this holiday season, and more than 30 percent plan to do more comparisons both online and in newspaper circulars.

The resolution will allow more customers to stay in Hartsville while they do that comparison shopping by giving local businesses longer operating hours.

Last year, the chamber received positive comments from businesses about the extended holiday shopping hours, Poplava said.

“We’re excited to give customers more opportunities to shop on the weekend,” Tim Ringer, manager at Wal-Mart in Hartsville, said. “We hope this will let the county see they can do away with blue laws altogether.”

The General Assembly allows entire counties to opt out of the blue laws if the county collects more than $900,000 in a year in revenues from accommodations taxes or if voters approve a referendum to opt out.

Employees still have the option of refusing as conscientious objectors to Sunday morning work, and they cannot be demoted or dismissed because of this opposition according to state law.

The resolution targets the holiday season specifically, Poplava said. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), half of consumers start shopping for the holidays in October and November, so the timing of the resolution is right for the shopping season.

“While last holiday season was filled with chaotic confusion, adjusting to uncertainty has now become routine for many Americans,” NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin said. “This holiday season will be a bit of a dance between retailers and shoppers, with each group feeling the other out to understand how things have changed and how they must adapt.”

The NRF also warns that consumers will be spending less on average this year, just $682.74 compared with $705.01 in 2008. That average hasn’t been below $700 in six years when the average consumer holiday spending was $671.88 back in 2003.

“In anticipation of weak demand, many retailers scaled back on inventory levels to prevent unplanned markdowns at the end of the season,” Mullin said. “Once the most popular items are gone, retailers won’t have anywhere to get them, so if there was ever a holiday season to buy early, this is it.”

And area residents can take the initiative and shop early on Sunday mornings in the city of Hartsville if they choose to do so again this year.