Mass. House advances ethnic food market bill
The Massachusetts House is advancing a bill that would allow certain ethnic food markets to open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, two of the holidays on which grocery stores and other retailers are not permitted to do business in Massachusetts.
The bill (H 140), sponsored by Rep. Tackey Chan, would require any store seeking to open on Thanksgiving or Christmas to prove that over half of its inventory is labeled in a language other than English, get local approval to do business on the holiday and pay workers at a holiday rate. Owners would also be prohibited from firing or otherwise penalizing employees who don't wish to work holiday shifts.
"It isn't like allowing Stop and Shop to bypass the Blue Laws, or the big supermarkets," said Chan, a Quincy Democrat. "It does take into consideration a changing marketplace."
Chan said the measure is aimed at "very specific" markets that cater primarily to immigrants, including some in his district.
"Quincy is a large minority community now, with a lot of Asian Americans, and we do have now several Asian markets that are like 90 percent non-English oriented," he said.
Allowing such shops the potential to open on Thanksgiving and Christmas would serve customers whose cultures do not celebrate the holidays and recent immigrants whose holiday festivities involve a blend of different customs, Chan said.
In many Asian cultures, he said, a big part of the holiday experience is shopping for prepared food and other culinary items that day, before the stores close at sundown.
"For things like Christmas and Thanksgiving and family events a lot of Asian families want to be able to get the latest thing that day for their families," Chan said. "As they adapt to American culture, they kind of co-mingle their holiday traditions with the holidays here."
The House gave Chan's bill initial approval last week. Versions of the bill filed in 2011 and 2013 also received initial House approval but saw no further action after they were referred to the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading.
"We'll see how it goes this time," Chan said.
State law prohibits retail establishments from operating on Thanksgiving, Christmas and the mornings of Veterans Day and Columbus Day, except in cases where the Department of Labor has issued uniform, statewide approval of permits and the retailer then obtains a permit from local police. If the necessary permits are granted, employees must receive time-and-a-half pay and work on a voluntary basis.
These restrictions are mirrored in Chan's bill, and he said they translate to no guarantee that shops granted approval to open on a holiday would actually be able to do so. Owners may be unable to find workers willing to take the shift or may find it too costly to pay them at the higher rate, he said.
"Just because you put this in place, it doesn't guarantee a business finds this desirable to do," Chan said. "It's not a slam dunk."
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