Take Back the Sabbath

When I was little, on Sundays, we got up early and went to church. We attended a small Southern Baptist Church on the north side of town called Faith Baptist. The church is still there, but I haven't attended there in decades.
After church was over, most of the time we came home to eat dinner. After dinner we went out to play, or read books, or took a nap. Sometimes, we were fortunate to receive out of town family. Aunts, uncles, and cousins from up yonder somewhere who had all piled in their family car to come visitin'. Once in a great while, we would be the ones to go wandering. We would visit sisters and brothers of my grandmother who lived in Gainesville, or Athens, or the thriving metropolis of Homer.
The point being that we did all of these things as a family because there was absolutely NOTHING else to do on a Sunday afternoon between the morning and evening services at your local church. Everything else was CLOSED.
Nowadays, its nothing to go out to eat after church, to go grocery shopping, or to head out to the Mall or to Target to wander around aimlessly passing the time. No one is closed on Sundays anymore except for a few stubborn holdouts like Chick-fil-a and Hobby Lobby. (In S. Truett Cathy's biography, he stated emphatically that, "If my business had to be open on Sunday to succeed, we'd fail." A fine fellow, Mr. Cathy.)
I will tell you that the thing about my job at Kroger that I hate the most is having to work on Sundays. I absolutely despise it. And its our busiest day of the week! Most people have no qualms about doing their shopping on Sunday and Kroger obliges them by being open.
It doesn't have to be, and shouldn't be, this way. The executives at Kroger think that they would lose their shirts by being closed on Sundays. Wal-Mart isn't going to close on Sunday, so why should we? First off, the vast majority of people shop at Kroger because its NOT Wal-Mart. Not because its so very much cheaper. Secondly, this attitude shows very little faith in your product. I've always been of the opinion that if you have four things, you'll be successful and people will find you when you're open. If you have a good product, a good price, a good location, and good service, you'll do well, no matter when you're open.
Even if you take the faith out of the equation, the 24/7/365 lifestyle we've cultivated in this country is taking its toll. I've tried to explain to people before that if you go into a store during traditionally non-business hours, you're only causing the prices on the products you're buying to be higher than they need to be. (If you go to Wal-Mart at 3 AM to buy a hammer and there's someone working in the store to complete the transaction, that hammer is more expensive than it would be if Wal-Mart was only open during traditional business hours.) When I tell people this, their eyes glaze over and they look at me like I'm speaking in tongues.
You cannot depend on the Wal-Marts, Targets, and Krogers of this world to do the right thing and close on Sundays. You can only give them the message with your wallet. Just remember that the next time you run into the grocery to get a few things after church, some poor soul is missing time with their family. Take back the Sabbath, and either go on Saturday or wait until Monday.