Although I disagree completely (it is really great to have day without crowds and traffic), it is probably time to again test the will of the people.

People only have so much money to spend. Traffic is crazy. We have more people in Bergen County (per US 2010 Census at 911,000 than Delaware (817,000), South Dakota (814,180), Alaska (710,231), North Dakota (672,591), Vermont (625,741), and Wyoming (563,626)....all of that congestion within 233 square miles. That's 3884 people per SQUARE MILE. The Blue Laws are the only thing keeping the shopping traffic down, and the area livable. We sell $16 BILLION in Retail sales every year. Essex County, again, according to the US Census, sells about $7.7 BILLION...and they DON'T have Blue laws. KEEP what LITTLE calm we have ONE day out of every SEVEN. This will NOT increase tax revenues in our county- consider this...we PAY out more taxes out of the county to the rest of the state than we EVER get back... Why SELL OUT for others? Modernize? More like this lady thinks that it will make her tax bills lower. Anyone who thinks that is KIDDING themselves. Keep Bergen Quaint! SUPPORT BLUE LAWS.

I'm starting a group called "Move Shashoua to Passaic County".

Where can you find the petition. I will sign. This is an old outdated law that does need to be changed. It frankly is ridiculous.

there will be too much traffic

I agree with her assessment. We live in the 21st Century and if businesses want to open and sell goods and services on Sunday they should be entitled to do so. Many people work during the week and on Saturdays and would wecome the convenience of being able to buy products on Sunday. Not a lot of intelligence to the law now anyway. You will see towns run flea markets on Sundays and any and everything is being sold. But if you have a large investment in a business in Bergen County you cannot conduct business. Not a lot of logic in the way the antiquated law is being administrated. I guess we will all get on our Horse and Buggy and head out of town Give me a Break!

The fallacy is that it will create jobs. It won't . Companies will stretch out thier current workers to cover the extra day that the worker won't be able to spend with thier family or friends. Guess trying to enjoy a day for yourself is "old fashioned" to this lady.

No way this is happening, residents of Bergen County move here for a reason, you don't like it there are plenty of options like Willowbrook or Palisades. I grew up in Paramus and it is a nightmare. It was a good idea to temporarily allow shopping after the storm, but it is not going to create more jobs. Instead, employers are going to make current staff work on Sundays, and will have to pay them overtime, no extra revenue there.....

Michael what is truly wrong is letting stores open on Thanksgiving as they did this year and not letting people spend it with their families. There a many people in this world that work on Sundays. So they get Saturday or another day off. How about your cops. I guess we should not have cops or Firemen on Sunday so they can spend it with their families. I hate to say this but most people that have Sunday off are not spending it with their families anymore like the "Old Fashioned Days" so I say open the stores. I wonder how many Bergen county residents actually do go out of town to shop on Sunday now? I bet half of Bergen is out of town during the holidays.

citizens against this look here http://www.change.org/petitions/bergen-county-executive-kathleen-a-donovan-keep-the-blue-laws-2

Keep the stores CLOSED on Sundays. This will not create more jobs. If anything, it will be a burden on Paramus Police, etc. We have done very well with the Blue Laws. I agree with Robert Prol -- If you really NEED to shop, go to another county. But, I also think the people of the county should decide. If she gets her signatures, bring it to the people, but if the stores open on Sunday, say goodbye to peace and quiet on any main road in Bergen County. This is one of the main reasons I stayed in Bergen County, now maybe I will leave. Pray for the residents of Paramus. They really LOVE the Blue Laws the most.

Where do I sign? The Blue Laws are ridiculous....I am a full time working mother of 3 and would love the option to go shopping at a Bergen County mall on a Sunday. And it will create jobs and tax revenue.....as far as Paramus goes, the traffic is located on Route 17....there aren't any houses on Route 17....if you don't like the traffic, don't go to the mall on a Sunday.

How long has she lived here? The only sanity left is the lack of Sunday traffic, Go to a neighboring county or better yet, go to Manhattan, take in a museum and then buy the consumer item that you must have. Seven days does not mean more jobs or revenue. It does mean seven days of traffic with the same revenue but more policing and quality of life costs.

Marge
This is what kills me. YOu say if you want to shop "go to another county" Maybe that county doesn't want the influx from Bergen county .Why should that county have to put up with more people coming into it because you don't want your own County to do it. Sounds a little selfish to me. What about Bergen county taxes. ARe they not high enough already. Could this help the tax situation?

Most people are too busy during the week to shop forcing everyone to shop on Saturday creating a traffic nightmare. I'm sure that if you lose the blue laws you will get a more balanced shopping pattern over two days rather than a saturday rush.

This antiquated law is on its way out.

I agree with LE. Many of the citizens of Bergen County have to drive to Rockland and Passaic Counties to shop on Sundays. Interesting how some of the comments are emphatically stating that Sunday Sales will not create jobs. Where is the basis in fact! The fact of the matter is in Westwood we have a lot of turnover in our retail locations and vacant retail frontage. An extra day of sales would certainly assist the business owners. As for the argument that people only have a certain amount of money to spend. That is correct; but on Sundays they are spending that money at the Palisades mall, The Willowbrook Mall. Loews in Orangeburg etc. Sales Tax collections from Bergen County residents are going to New York State and Rockland County. The Blue Laws are the past. Essentially the past centuries. Our county taxes keep going up, lets bring in more revenues. Certainly lifting the Blue Laws in Paramus would help our County and State financially. And I also agree. If you do not like traffic, stay home

Please send a copy of the petition to ALL the towns in Bergen County.

Oh for goodness sake, just leave us alone and move to Passaic County. I'm tired of all the New Yorkers coming here on Saturday's clogging the roads and malls. We don't need the same thing on Sundays. Get a life, no one has to shop 7 days a week, and if you have the compulsion to do so, just log onto to amazon.com please.

CJ you make no sense what so ever.

For those that say there are no houses on RT 17 go look on the other side of many of the business's that line 17. There are plenty of houses there. Like I said before being open will not create extra jobs or tax revenue.

Tell Rosemary Shashoua to move where she can shop

While there were some it wasn't a overwhelming majority of people going to New York to spend more money in the form of higher taxes. As for WestWood it's the pay to park & lack of parking that's more of an issue than being open on Sunday.

21st, if you do not like the blue laws, then move where there are none!

Sales tax revenues go to the State of NJ and are then distributed to municipalities using a formula of need & income. Bergen County already contributes more to and receives less back from sales tax revenues per capita than any other county in NJ. Here are the numbers and where the taxes go http://policy.rutgers.edu/reports/rrr/RRR31oct12.pdf

Repealing the blue law will do nothing for residents of Bergen County. It won't mean more money for our schools, it won't lower property taxes, it won't build parks or pave our streets, nada, zip. It will however increase the need to provide more services such as police, fire, ambulance, water, sewer, sanitation etc to deal with increased use & traffic volume.

And more jobs? Retail jobs? Well I'd like to see some reliable cites first rather than opinions from big chain out-of-state merchants with a financial stake. The average retail salary in NJ is about $22K annually which is well below the poverty level for a family of four. These are the kind of jobs we need more of? Pfft.

I agree that the blue laws should be repealed, allow paramus to pass their own law if they don't want business. It makes traffic worse on Saturday, and it is one less day store owners can amoritize their rent.

If you are dissatisfied with the crowded conditions in Bergen, blame the state supreme court and our ridiculous COAH laws, our cities are rotting and abandoned, so instead of renewing them, we just force towns to build on all of their open land...

@William Edward Last time I looked we are all citizens of the state of NJ and any addtional tax revenues would be welcomed especially with a looming deficit. As for jobs, speak to the thousands of unemployed citizens in our state including my home town of Westwood. Many of them would jump at an opportunity to make $22K per year to assist in their support of their families. It absolutely amazes me how many people who oppose the lifting of the ancient Blue Laws live in the past and do not recognize the constraints and opportunties in the 21st Century. The whole world around us is changing but we would rather live in a cocoon than accept the realities of the current society. I can buy anything I want through the internet on the special day (as to why Sunday is special who knows?) but I cannot go to my main street store and buy the same item. Okay let's keep the Blue Laws and let all of the sales migrate to the internet and when we walk on our main streets in the future the store fronts will be only that store fronts with no retail businesses. Sounds like a lot of the Hollywood Movie Sets I frequented in California. Perhaps I will buy everyone who wants to keep the Blue Laws 'Living in the Past" tee shirts.

Rosemary will hurt her own town. The Mom and Pop stores will have to be open on Sundays and either the poor owners will not get a day off or the additional expenses might be too costly. Bad idea.

We Need it Desperately! You can not blame others for not spending time with their families. You shpuld do that everyday!

Maybe some business competiton is good.

What is next, close restuarants on Sundays????

What's wrong with a dinner at home?

What the issue boils down to is that government (whatever through legislative efforts from elected legislators, or through a public refendum by the electorate) ought to dictate when and/or how a local retailer ought to operate its own business. I say that this is not the government's business on when a retailer can operate its business, leave it the individual retailer to decide of when, baed on what it thinks it's in the retailer's best interest. Thusly, repeal this governmental mandate, and let freedom ring!!!!!!!

Even the Amish and Orthodox Jewish people shop on Sunday. Let us as residents of
Bergen County, decide whether or not we wish to shop on Sundays. We should be more concerned with Gun control.

If you own a small business or are the manager of a larger retail store in BC would love to here if you think it would add value to your business. I'm not sure if the added expenses of labor, sanitation, security etc by the anticipated revenues. I am of the mindset that if I have a $100 a week to spend at retail, other then the convenience of Sunday shopping. I'm really not going to spend any more. With all the big box stores and retailers in BC, I am sure there has been a study conducted on this matter. My gut is that if the big national retailers thought there was a win-fall in being open 7 vs. 6 days per week there would have been a lot of pressure put on our elected decision makers for change.

Sorry for the unfinished thought in my posting: I am not sure if the added expenses of labor, sanitation, security etc. would be offset by the anticipated incremental revenues.

Individual store owners would be able to decide to open or not the same they do on the night Westwood used to be open for all to sop while growing up here. I am not sure businesses are going out due to the lack of Sunday hours but staying competitive is a must today. I do think that the Blue Laws could and should be lifted during the months of Aug-Sept for Back to School as well as Nov- Dec for holiday shopping. This would help those businesses that wish to open and capitalize on the shoppers who cannot come in during "normal" hours due to their own work commitments. Perhaps The Patch could go in and poll the local merchants for their take on what they need. While it is interesting to get the varying consumer ideas the ones who count are the business owners as they are the ones directly affected by any changes.

John - Paramus is a lovely middle-class town and that's exactly what it will remain because it made a conscious choice a long time ago to encourage the mall development in an effort to keep their taxes low. Alpine residents, on the other hand, don't need to worry about how much they pay in taxes but they too made a conscious decision about the type of town they wanted to be - exclusive with nothing to encourage tourists or shoppers to take a Sunday trip through their town. So they only have 3 businesses - a restaurant, a gas station, and a garden center. Now that the economy and the demographics of Bergen County has changed Paramus wants to stop any effort by the other towns to address the changes. Paramus is free to keep or repeal it's own Blue laws. Repeal of the County laws allows us to be free to do so in our towns.

It is selfish of this woman to force the people who work in these malls and retail centers to work. This is our only day off most of the time. Time that is used to spend with our families and children. It is foolish to say you want to sit at a mall and decide where to spend your money. Stay home, save money and leave the blue laws alone.

Good for them, go become an Amish person and live in PA. They have a ton of casino's in many PA towns now, should we consider getting some slot machines in Westwood too while you're out wrecking the towns? Let's have a competition with other towns to see how many seedy people we can get along with how much traffic we can get! Also, other towns have gangs, maybe we should do what the gangs do and have some shootouts. Sounds like a real hootenanny! Cut it with what "others" have and do please!

Every town should have a vote on this. If Paramus wants to close on sundays fine, but if other towns want to stay open then so be it. We shouldn't have to bend over backwards for Paramus. This ordinance should be a town ordinance not a county.

I would encourage whomever wants to repeal these blue laws to travel to the nearest bridge (on Sunday if you like) and jump off

For those people who object to lifting the Blue Laws. Wake up to Reality. As I stated the internet is taking sales away from our local retailers. Not the Macy's, Norstroms, or Lord and Taylor stores, but the stores in our home towns like Westwood. As intelligent citizens we should allow the small store owner the opportunity to open any day of the week to generate revenue. I know a number of you Blue Law devotees do not have an understanding of retail, but in the 21st century their is more compeition than at any other time in history and with the competition selling margins as well as gross magins are minimal. If you want to see the end of main street retail go ahead and keep the blue laws in tact. I must advise you though your real estate taxes will go up with all of the closed businesses. Again, grab you horse and buggys and go off to ma and pa's for your sunday dinner

For all those comments on retail employees working on Sundays: take a step back and think about what you are saying. In business people work primarily work 5 days a week. More than likely and especially with Obamacare the Sunday work would be with part timers who want to earn a couple of extra dollars. Might be college students and seniot citizens. But at least allow them the opportunity to work and make some extra money What you Blue Law people are doing is denying those people the right to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The small store owners in towns like westwood would have the opportunity to open or close on Sunday. It will then be their decision not governments. I believe in a strong government; but in the case of business especially in our competitive capitalistic environment, the business owner should be allowed the opportunity to make the decision. Why can some products be sold over others. Restaurants are allowed to be open, but not the shop selling clothes. The logic is not there in the current Blue Laws

Bob Gilson - I appreciate the really thoughtful addition to this discussion. Frankly, though I support repeal most comments have been honest but respectfull. This has been a great discussion. None of us seems to have the hard data your asking;however, we're not likely to get it since businesses are prohibited from operating and thus producing the data. Nor do I feel that I need that data since I support repeal for reasons previously stated.

I know its impossible but I would love to get an honest answer from the people in Bergen county how many Sunday's they have gone out of Bergen county to shop. How many times during the holidays do they go out of town to shop. I just bet the majority do so all the other counties should have to open on Sundays to supply Bergen county residents?

Q - I do my house errands on Sat and shop on Sundays outside of Bergen County. I wouldn't be caught dead at the malls on Sat - not even for a Movie on Sat night.

Rosemary ...MYOB, please!

Hey Rich ...Mind Your Own Business, please. Getting pretty tired of folks who think they have the right (more like gall) to regulate my days activities including what days I shop. I work Sat and Sunday. I have little to no sympathy for civilians crying about traffic.

Well then devote your energies to bringing it to referendum. What are you afraid of? I know EXACTLY what you and you ilk are afraid of; that if brought to the voting booth, the Blue Laws will be upheld yet again because it's a quality of life issue and most long time residents of Bergen County think it's just the right thing to do. And I'm getting pretty tired of folks offering lame excuses; sort of like yours.

Rich - which post by whom are you replying to? I'm not afraid of anything or anyone. What in the postings would cause you to comment that? And lame excuses? Which lame excuses? That I work Sat and Sunday? Or are you replying to some other post?

Well this thread has now devolved to nonsense. Bye.

If the shoe fits, wear it. If not, then why worry? Otherwise, like I said, VERY simple, quit yer rantin' and put it on the ballot. Because that's EXACTLY what you interlopers are afraid of and why you're all sneaking around looking for a legislative end run. Christie tried it and he backed away real quick too. PUT IT ON THE BALLOT and let's see where it goes. lol @ Rob Prol "like button" ... seems you just found it.

Ah...You are projecting your own fears and bringing in a topic that had not yet been addressed in this thread. I support a state law that allows each town to decide to keep or repeal for their individual towns.

Fears? Only if the truth scares you, which apparently it does, because 1) the sneaky little plot was uncovered and 2) if you were so certain of victory you'd simply address the issue at the ballot box. Like one of the major political parties, seems like if you can't win on your own policies, you'll attempt to change the rules by some other means. And by the way, Paramus already has its OWN set of Blue Laws that apply specifically to Paramus ... GO FOR IT!!

Rich -

I hear what your saying. However, there is one difference between how people voted in the past and how they would vote now and its about jobs it is that simple.

I would like to see data that shows more money would not be created because it would. After Sandy when stores were allowed to open they were packed, not because they needed things to help to rebuild because as a culture people like to interact with one another. Not everyone is a recluse and sits home, people like to get out. Once they are out they will spend money.

People need the jobs and money and that alone would be incentive enough to repeal the blue laws. Do not under estimate the power of the unemployed/underemployed.

Fine if you 'hear' then stop ignoring the basic, underlying premise. I've said "PUT IT ON THE BALLOT," several times. Let people vote on it and then we'll see if things have changed, won't we?

Oh Richie - get some oxygen in you - your going to have an aneurysm!

I will see you on election day!

Rich likes to raise his voice (CAP LOCK).

It's not about Paramus. It's about Westwood, Teaneck, Fort Lee and all the other towns in Bergen County. What many people don't understand is that there are two completely separate sets of blue laws at work here. The first is the Borough of Paramus Blue Law that prohibits all worldly business from taking place in the borough. The second is a state law that prohibits the sale of clothing, household goods and lumber on Sunday. Twenty of the twenty one counties in New Jersey have decided not to enforce this law. It is the state law that we seek to repeal and it can only be done by a county wide vote. Repealing the state law does nothing to the Paramus law and does not prevent individual towns from passing their own blue laws, if that is what the residents want.
Stores throughout the rest of Bergen County are already open seven days a week, if they wish to, as long as they don't sell only the forbidden items. Repealing the state law would only open a few stores and allow others to not have to rope off portions of their stores, It's about allowing stores in downtowns like Ridgewood and Oradell to be open on Sunday which would lead to a decrease in traffic on the highways as some people would choose to shop locally. It's about allowing Walmart in Garfield to sell clothes on a Sunday to a single parent. It's about allowing a homeowner to buy appliances and lumber at their convenience.

Part 2
Repealing the state blue laws will reduce traffic on Saturday even with the malls closed. We aren't increasing the amount of dollars available for people to spend. Given the the choice of being on the road Saturday or Sunday will result in some people choosing to spend Saturday at home and making their purchases on Sunday.
The way we live our lives has changes in the twenty years since this has been put to a vote and it's time for the county to put it to a vote.

This is just what we need; more traffic on Sunday. This will eliminate the one day that we can go to any destination in Bergen county without sitting in traffic. Apparently, Rosemary Shashoua owns a business in Westwood and has obvious reasons to promote the removal of the Blue Laws. This type of selfish behavior is just another example why our society is going down hill.

Unfortunately, you can't have a battle of wits with an unarmed idiot.