HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2249        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 201

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act allowing retail stores and shops to open on thanksgiving day..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.Chapter 136 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section sixteen and replacing it with the following:-

All stores and shops which sell goods at retail may be open at any time on Sundays and on Memorial Day, July Fourth, Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day, but no such stores and shops may be open on Christmas Day if Christmas occurs on a Sunday.  The performance of labor, business and work directly connected to retail sales on these days shall also be allowed.  Stores and shops allowed to open under this section may sell on these days all types of goods and foodstuffs which may lawfully be offered for sale in the commonwealth other than alcoholic beverages.  To the extent that this section is inconsistent with section 6 or any other general or special law, this section shall control.

The provisions of law inserted into clause (50) of section six of this chapter by chapter five hundred and fifty-six of the Acts of 1982 pertaining to voluntariness of work and time and one half payments shall apply to any such work performed on said days.  The terms "Memorial Day,'' "July Fourth'', "Labor Day'' and “Thanksgiving Day” shall mean the legal holidays on which said days are celebrated in accordance with clause eighteen of section seven of chapter four of the General Laws.