AG: No gathering together at Whole Foods on turkey day
(Correction: Because of incorrect information provided by the Massachusetts attorney general's office, a Page One story Saturday on the state's blue laws and Thanksgiving shopping misstated the holidays on which, under the laws, retailers and supermarkets must remain closed. Those holidays are Christmas and Thanksgiving.)
It was heavily promoted as a helpful move for the modern, constantly working, frenzied shopper: Whole Foods, the health-oriented supermarket chain, planned to open all 14 of its stores in Massachusetts for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. Shoppers could buy organic, free-range turkey hours before family arrived.
But the brash attempt to accommodate harried holiday shoppers ran smack into the state's 17th-century blue laws and Whole Foods' 21st-century competitor, Shaw's.
Having spotted a Whole Foods banner advertising Thanksgiving hours, Shaw's officials wrote to Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and, citing Colonial blue laws, asked him to block the turkey-day openings. On Tuesday, Reilly issued a sternly worded legal opinion telling Whole Foods that it would have to keep its doors closed on Thanksgiving or risk criminal charges.
The decision did not sit well with some shoppers, who say that these days, not everyone is practiced at the art of making pies. Disasters can happen, and 11th-hour dashes are necessary.
''What if you need something at the last-minute?" asked Jeff Orlinski, 26, as he shopped yesterday at the Whole Foods store in Hingham. ''What happens if your stuffing gets burned?"
David Lannon, president of
''Until the blue law changes in Massachusetts, it's not something we can offer our customers, although we'd very much like that," Lannon said. ''We're not going to break the law. If the blue law says we'll have to be closed, we have to be closed."
Whole Foods had hoped to build on some past success, when a few Whole Foods stores in Massachusetts had been mobbed by buyers after obtaining special permits from cities and towns to open on Thanksgiving. In addition, Whole Foods throws open its doors on Thanksgiving Day in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, Lannon said, and he figured Massachusetts should follow suit.
''It proves to be a very busy morning for people to get flour or baked goods, pretty much all the last-minute stuff you would have forgotten," Lannon said . ''It's for people after they're done shopping on Tuesday or Wednesday who say, 'Ooh, I need more butter or another bunch of celery.' "
But Shaw's, a 200-store supermarket giant in New England, wouldn't have it. Some of its employees had spotted a banner fluttering at a Bellingham Whole Foods proclaiming that the store would be open on Thanksgiving. Before long, the chain based in West Bridgewater had composed a letter of complaint to Reilly.
''We believe that allowing Whole Foods to open on Thanksgiving Day will create an unlevel playing field for all other retail grocers," Shaw's legal department wrote to Reilly on Nov. 4. ''Besides disadvantaging competitors, a Whole Foods opening would harm consumers, due to lack of choice in the marketplace for consumers to shop and compare prices for the best deal."
The chain had investigated the matter thoroughly.
''In fact," Shaw's legal department wrote, ''all of the Whole Foods stores, except one, have advertised via banners, signs, or announcements that they will be open on Thanksgiving. . . . In light of this information, it appears that Whole Foods intends to operate in clear violation" of the Massachusetts blue laws.
The letter concluded with a request to Reilly ''that you investigate this matter and prevent the potentially anticonsumer and anticompetitive behavior from occurring this Thanksgiving holiday."
Shaw's sent copies to Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole and the chiefs of 10 other police departments.
Nine days before Thanksgiving, just about the time Whole Foods employees were rolling out the dough for gluten-free pecan and cherry pies, Reilly's office issued a one-page decree to Whole Foods.
''Generally, the performance of work on legal holidays is prohibited unless permitted by a statutory exemption," Reilly's fair labor and business practices division told the upscale chain. The letter pointed out that the law gives Reilly the power to bring criminal charges against anyone who violates the state's blue laws.
First enacted in the colonies in the 1600s, blue laws were designed to stop colonists from straying from church or hearth to drink or transact business. While many of the restrictions have since been repealed, some remain on the books. The laws still include references to the Sabbath and detail the penalties for ''folk or square dancing."
Asked what shoppers should do if they need more cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, Nick Messuri, chief of Reilly's business and labor protection bureau, said shoppers would have to get that the day before. Asked where Reilly does his Thanksgiving shopping, spokesman Terence Burke cut into the conversation on the telephone.
''We don't know," he said.
Messuri said blue laws may sound archaic, but they protect workers from pressure to give up their holidays.
''The role of the attorney general is to protect workers from employers that wish to violate the law and to make sure that employers don't take advantage of workers," Messuri said.
Yesterday, Shaw's issued a brief statement. ''First, Shaw's prides itself on abiding by all state and federal laws and regulations," Shaw's spokeswoman Teresa Edington wrote in an e-mail to the Globe. ''This includes the Blue Laws. All of our Shaw's and Star Market stores in Massachusetts are closed on Thanksgiving."
Globe correspondent Chase Davis contributed to this report. 