Paris Sunday trading: Losing its religion

When I lived in Los Angeles or New York, I thought of Sunday shopping as my birth right. Rushing out to the store to find the right t shirt or shirt or accessories on a Sunday afternoon for a party that night was just a thing I took for granted. I often did my grocery shopping at midnight too…
Yet, in Paris, most shops are closed on Sundays, except for bakeries (not all either…though I guess they realize that the French without their baguette might lead to riots. And boy, those baguettes can really be a rock hard weapon after just a day, unlike American bread that can stay soft for weeks!); If you did not plan ahead and buy food or that cute hat you want to wear to the party on Saturday, well, tough luck. And forget about shopping after 7/30 or 8 pm. Stores are closed then.

Recently, in a bar with a friend, I innocently expressed how I missed Sunday shopping. This brought an unexpectedly violent reaction from my friend who literally said that Sunday closing is sacred, and that Sunday trading is probably only fit for capitalist pigs of the worst kind. At the moment national debates are on going everywhere as the government has proposed to allow Sunday trading. Yes, Sunday trading is prohibited by law here (and stores may be fined heavily if they open, though, in the past few years large stores might be open on Sunday and pay their fine willingly as profit is still there even after fine was paid).

The reason most evoked for no Sunday trading include Sundays being a religious day (the day when you go to church I guess), family day (everyone works or goes to school during the week) or rest day. Sunday, it seems, is just an obligatory rest day for everyone including the most poor (though this last argument is debatable…seeing the exploitation of the poor workers until recently).

The debate now concerns whether Sunday trading would be allowed, and if yes, the law that needs to be put into place. The latter include the pay that employees working on Sundays would receive, the right to refuse to work on Sundays etc.
Though France is and still ardently guards the idea of total separation of state and religion, Sunday trading debate evokes religious idea that the state is becoming involved.

Indeed the involvement of the state in our shopping could be surprising to comers to France. For instance, the state decides when stores can have ‘sales’ (You can
imagine the mad rush as all stores have sales and everyone knows when sales are going to be on coupled with the absence of these sales at any other time). This leads to fairly extreme behaviors among costumers. They camp in front of the stores to be the first to grab the items that they had checked out (and maybe hidden) the days before; they do not hesitate to be aggressive (or more so than usual at least in Paris); and fights may break out among well dressed and usually well behaved people. For people who come to Paris, these are pure entertainments that the state has unwittingly (and thus, no charge!) displayed for its visitors.

Hints for visitors : If you find yourself in Paris on a Sunday, the area called Le Marais (4th arrondissement, Metro Hotel de Ville, Saint Paul or Rambuteau) has shops open. The shopping center at the Centre du Louvre near the museum is also open (Metro : Musee du Louvre or Palais Royal). Finally, there are the flea markets including the big one at St Ouen (Metro Porte St. Ouen) and several shops such as FNAC and Virgin that are open on sundays at the Avenue Champs Elyssee (Metro Saint George).