Oregon car dealers to government: Please ban us from selling on Sunday!
Desperate times, desperate measures:
Oregon’s struggling auto dealers plan to ask the Legislature to impose “blue laws” prohibiting car sales on Sunday.
The day off would help them cut costs during an economic downturn that has already put 19 Oregon dealerships out of business this year. Nationally, sales of domestic cars declined more than 35 percent in 2008.
Greg Remensperger, executive vice president of the Oregon Automobile Dealers Association, told The Oregonian newspaper his members strongly favor the measure.
“No question, there’s some troubled times out there,” Remensperger said.
It’s unclear if legislators will take to the idea. The plan wouldn’t cost the state anything, but lawmakers already have a full plate when their session starts next month. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, said he hadn’t heard of the proposal and didn’t know enough about it to comment.
Eleven other states have a similar prohibition on Sunday auto sales.
(link)
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Forget the government solutions, find some sales people that are interested in selling cars!
I believe that we are witnessing the end of the free market in the US.
Auto dealers have the right to shut their doors on Sunday or any other day for that matter.
I believe that all businesses should take Sunday off. But asking for government regulation is asking for trouble.
The government already wants to tell the auto-makers: what kind of cars to make, how much to pay key executives, and what kind of benefits to pay workers.
These decisions must be made by the auto-makers who will sink or swim based upon their own decisions.
If the government makes these decisions for them, it will surely lead to making cars that are not in demand and not hiring the most qualified employees.
Likewise, auto dealerships must sink or swim based on their own decisions. Relying on government regulations will ultimately reduce efficiency and lead to a less competitive environment.
Typical mamby-pamby girlie-men liberals. Scared to take a chance on the market so they have to ask the government to intervene with legislation to make the outcome fair. And they wonder why they’re failing.
And notice how they don’t trust each other to stick to a pact, but oh you know you can trust whatever they tell you about that car you have your eye on. *wink*
I wholeheartedly agree, garyganu. We’re witnessing the death of the free-market and the beast of the spread the wealth economy rear its ugly head. I don’t know what the ultimate solution to the economic woes will be, but throwing good money down a bad drain will solve nothing.
So these idiots need a law to tell them when they should close?
The only reason for this is to keep a failing businesses afloat longer. If they wanted to close their business, they could. But then they would lose business to those who chose to stay open.
Better to pass a nanny-state, dictator-like, anti-free market law like this than to compete.
You got that right vsatt. The term liberal and the term girlie-man are interchangeable.
Read my post “Do Liberals Have a Feminized Agenda?” for complete clarification.
Except the liquor stores. Please exempt the liquor stores.
If they really wanted to cut costs, they would close the losing dealerships, and restructure the Big 3… but they just don’t have the balls to do that… and the fat cat union boys don’t want to hear any talk of labor cuts…. besides the Big 3 (or is it now the Wee 3) really want to cut the legs off of Toyota (oh where is Tonya Harding when you need her).
Car dealers… born a weasel, always a weasel…
Doesn’t anyone else see the irony in this? The blue laws were designed to enforce moral standards and not regulate commerce. In a country where government restrictions on business for the sake of a particular religion would agitate the indignant left, now is desired for monetary gains.
I probably didn’t help the unions, buying a new Toyota Tacoma… even after this democrap manufactured mess started, September 30th.
By the way, if closing on Sunday would help, why not?
PS- the truck is awesome.
Well said and very true.
The left often uses an “ends justifies the means” philosophy when it suits them.
Why do they need the government to tell them to close on Sunday? Why can’t they do it themselves?
Or did I miss something here?
No – you have correctly noted that some people need the government for absolutely every decision they make.
Please Nancy Pelosi – may I pee?
And this is truly laughable since it’s Oregon – the home of No Sales Tax. They could be Auto Dealers to the Nation except they are bereft of self-motivation.
All about shifting blame away and stifling their competitors. When their customers ask why they closed on Sundays they can say “blue laws” instead of “we can’t afford to stay operational 7 days a week so we chose Sunday to close up shop”. Plus that way their competitors can’t break a verbal agreement not to open on Sundays and sell cars so they are the only ones open that weekend. Wouldn’t want people to get crazy and sell cars now could we?
I never thought I would see the day people would be begging for such laws to be used for cutting salary and operational expenses. Makes me want to “Eat mor chikin” to boost Chick-fil-A who already voluntarily closes on Sunday and not for financial gain like these dealership posers.
Irony. Delicious irony.
Hey, maybe Chick-fil-A should ask states to make McDonald’s close on Sundays. What a joke.
Are Sundays slowest sales days for car dealerships? It would be nice, but somehow I doubt it. But it is the only day of the week you might be able to convince the gov’t to shut down your competitors.
“Our business is in trouble, so let’s cut costs in a way that makes it more difficult for our customers to get to us.” Brilliant!!!
Selling alcohol on Sunday – IMMORAL
Selling alcohol on Monday – MORAL
Selling alcohol on Tuesday – MORAL
Selling alcohol on Wednesday – MORAL
Selling alcohol on Thursday – MORAL
Selling alcohol on Friday – MORAL
Selling alcohol on Saturday – MORAL
Good thing I was off on Sundays; I would say hate to be IMMORTAL by selling alcohol on Sundays to support myself through college. Whew, dodged a bullet back then!!
I would also hate to be immoral
If the members of “Oregon Automobile Dealers Association” want to close on Sunday. Why don’t they just agree to close on those days? (They don’t need the government to TELL them).
Yes they do. Oregon is a liberal Blue state. They need the government to tell them everything to do.
I think the idea is that they want to close on Sunday (to save money), but if they do, and someone else stays open, they will lose even more money than had they simply stayed open.
Thus, there are two options :
1. all car dealerships agree to close on sundays
2. have the government make a law to ensure that everyone is closed
The first option will not work because there is a huge incentive to break the promise. Also, the costs of making such a deal might be incredibly high (the last dealership will never join the agreement).
I think you can argue that they should find other ways to cut costs, but, if they really want to close down on Sundays to lower costs, the most efficient way is probably through the government.
Not necessarily true, Chap. Every definition and/or description of blue laws states one or both of the following:
1) A law designed to regulate commercial business on Sunday.
2) One of a body of laws in colonial New England designed to enforce certain moral standards and particularly to prohibit specified forms of entertainment or recreation on Sundays.
Couldn’t agree with you more!!!
We used to have blue laws here in Texas. As a kid, I remember retail shop being closed every Sunday.
Today, car dealers are still closed, though I don’t know why. Sunday is a big shopping day.
Hey, can’t they just close on Sunday? I guess Honda dealers don’t want to, isn’t that the real problem?
Wasn’t the old Soviet Union a wonderful place afterall? Obammunism will be great.
Why can’t the Automobile Dealers Association members make the rule amongst themselves? THEY’RE CAR DEALERS! Their first rule of business is to cheat the competition (normally the customer) out of everything they can. I had a friend who was a mechanic at a large dealership, and he once described to me the process by which the salespeople worked over the customer. There was a final step that had a nefarious-sounding name that I don’t recall, but this was where they piled on the “extras” to sell to the
suckercustomer.Exactly right….
But I thought they weren’t selling enough cars to cover costs???? Isn’t that the point of this ridiculous bailout???
If that’s supposedly the case, then voluntarily closing on Sundays shouldn’t make a difference anyways…
There’s a “you’re check is in the mail” statement for the ages.
Why do they need a law? If they want to close on Sunday then do it.
Because the whole situation is a classic prisoner’s dilemma. It only works out well for all car dealerships if everybody closes on Sunday. If some dealerships still sell cars, the whole thing collapses. To enforce that this does not happen, you need to have a law.
This would, of course, negatively effect those few car dealerships that still manage to make a profit on Sundays. In other words, the law (once again) would reward bad economic decisions, by helping failing car dealerships while profitable car dealerships could somewhat suffer.
As Madmonk said, Texas laws require car dealerships to close, but it isn’t specific to Sunday. They can sell cars 6 days a week. Most choose to close Sunday, but some dealerships close other days.
Our dealerships have found this makes money. Not only do they have cost savings, buth they also keep their outside lots open and accessible. They have low fences/barriers that prevent car theft but allow foot traffic access. Many have put in parking outside their perimeter. They encourage people to look at cars while they are closed and come back to make deals when they open.
It’s a win/win. People get to browse the lot without a pushy salesperson, and dealerships save operation costs. We have one dealership here that advertises to come to their lot while they are closed.
I’ve done all my car shopping that way.
And how would our mostly liberal brethren in the Pacific Northwest justify a Sunday closing? Religious reasons? Come on, now. The ACLU will be all over this like flies on a rotting corpse.
Does it never end? This Dealer has 98 stores and he needs Oregon to hold his hand?
Irritating.
Like beer and wine, demand for cars is finite.
The real issue is that there are too many dealerships and so sales volume does not support the staffing needed. Solution – let some fail. No laws required.
Economic Darwinism at its best.
I’m gonna write to my Congressmen and ask them to pass a law banning looney, leftwing, bed-wetting, girly-man, tree-hugging LIBERALS!!!
Here in Richmond, VA and other parts of the state, we have Ukrop’s grocery stores that are always closed on Sunday. And, they don’t sell beer or wine, but they are still the best around even with all of the others open on Sunday. Ukrop’s shoppers simply remember this and plan ahead.
Hmmm…government involvement pretty much always creates more problems than it solves. Most of out here in the private sector know that. Yet the auto dealerships now want government involvement. Are they trying to drive themselves out of business??
(pun somewhat intended)
note: countdown to the troll attacking me here too…3…2…1…
This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and I hope that the dealerships that don’t want this diaper-baby treatment from the Gubment raise hell about this stupidity in a very public and vocal fashion.
This is some sort of joke, right?
Be careful what you ask for.
As an Oregonian…
I doubt this is a joke. It sounds like the car dealerships just want the assurances that other dealerships won’t fudge on the organized closings (huh? – that’s somewhat funny and ironic, isn’t it?)
Anyway, speaking IMHO, this is hardly one of the bigger things to get upset about. The newly elected Mayor of the Great State of Portland (Sam Adams) was floating ideas on how to solve some of the local problems recently. Yes, one of his first big important policy considerations was about implementing a city-wide tax on residential properties for leaf removal! (If you’re familiar with our natural environment, you’ll soon realize that we have trees EVERYWHERE – only about 1/2 are deciduous, many are conifers and don’t drop “leaves”, …). Everybody gets some leaves, produces some leaves, rakes some leaves, etc. etc. But, people have been dealing with these just fine – for a long, long time; and besides, there is a long list of MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO!
…As a mythical evil genius from a film once remarked: “Why must I be surrounded by frickin’ idiots!”
not trying to turn this into a Ukrops commercial.. but they do have the best deli hands down as well..
Anyway….
The Moratorium on Brains is in effect.. the “Please tell us we can’t sell cars on Sunday”.
Footnote to my above post – don’t get me wrong, I love the trees (got a few myself) – it’s just that no one (well, very few) would wish the trees away just because of a annual bout with leaves… that’s all. Carry on.
Heh…the one thing you currently can’t buy on Sunday in Oregon.
Zorro wrote,
I confess to buying a Ford, but it was used 1989 Bronco for $800 plus $200 for new battery and starter. Don’t see why I should buy new for the next few decades actually.
But then people wouldn’t be able to instantly run to the store and get things they’d forgotten. That would lead to people to planning ahead and taking care of themselves. Not to mention the religious aspect of the Sabbath. We can’t let scourges like religion and self-reliance get a foothold here.
Do I really need a /sarc tag?
So private businesses are demanding that the government force them to shut thier own doors one day a week? Are they really that brainwashed to follow government commands that they cant close thier OWN business anytime they want?
What am I missing here?
Yeah, I don’t get this either. Time was – 50 years ago or so – businesses closed on Sundays because Sundays were supposed to be a day of rest. Yeah, I know – the left will have a fit because of the “religious implications” of closing on Sundays. But it worked.
With the exception of essential services like police/fire/hospitals/pharmacies I don’t understand why we can’t go back to that model. By and large, Americans work more and rest less than our counterparts around the world.
I will ignore the fact that people often have different schedules and sometimes Sunday is the only day available to run errands and such, and focus on: what business it is of yours when people choose to do things or their failure to plan ahead?
Seriously, even as an ateist, I am very open to, even supportive of, creches in public areas or hymns sung in schools or whatever. Not every mention of religion or God in public is the downfall of our precious freedoms.
But what really really really gets me steamed are blue laws of ANY sort. I leave you alone. You let me buy what the hell I want when I want. Oh, you can shroud these laws in whatever secular justification you want, but it is undeniable what underlies it all is the puritanical steak in American religion.
Because it is no one’s business when or what I choose to buy. Just as no one is dragging me off to St. Anthony’s for 10 am mass on Sundays, no one is dragging you to Tony’s Wine and Spirits for a fifth of Jack on Sundays.
Chap, What I don’t get is that IT IS THIER BUSINESS. They should be able to close any day they wish. Why even go to the government? Why not just close one day a week? Hell make it monday. Who goes car shopping on monday?
I brew my own on Sunday.
Oh you just want to hide your massive purchases at the porn barn, satanic supplies store, and liquor store. We know what you are like
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I in no way support what the dealers are doing here. And if, perchance, all liquor stores in my area voluntarily closed on Sundays, I would be annoyed, but wouldn’t really have a beef.
I buy my porn and satanic supplies online.
Whoa! Easy there, big fella!! Some of us are only fondly reminiscing of the more peaceful and quieter days gone by….
How many people went to the empty mall parking lots on Sundays to learn how to drive?
Exorcisms are only done by appointment only, so don’t worry about it!
I’ve worked in the auto industry for many years (dealer & corporate), and I still for the life of me cant figure this one out. Almost every dealer that IS open on Sundays is running with reduced staff and probably no service department.
Lets think through this for a minute. Most people who buy new or nearly-new cars, or are getting said cars serviced at a dealership HAVE JOBS. Most of said jobs are M-F 9-5…so why the heck would the dealerships want to close on Sunday when the “car buying public” has a whole free day to…wait for it…buy cars?
It’s a ridiculous suggestion anyway to ask for more govt intervention, but if you’re going to go through with it, how about closing down on mondays when everyone else is at work anyway?
P.S. NJ Blue Laws be darned. How is it that in NJ…gay marriage = fine by us, but buying a sweater at macy’s = unholy sin of the ages?
This is insanely stupid. What if the law gets passed and then sales pick up? Will these morons running these dealerships then have to go back to the legislature and beg them to repeal the law? What concessions might the legislature demand?
If you don’t want to pay the costs to sell cars on Sunday then close your shop. If nobody is buying your cars anyway, then it really doesn’t matter what day of the week you DON’T sell that car! But to ask the government to step in with a law is stupid.
American business is doomed if these morons are the best we have.
Stop me before I sell again.
What we need is a state to [attempt to] regulate buying and selling on the interwebbernetmachine on Sundays.
OK, Liberals. Read this and print it if you need to.
When you leave your dealership on Saturday make sure you lock the door. Do not go back until Monday morning.
Now say this at your next dealer association meeting together: ( FOUR LEGS GOOD. TWO LEGS BAAAD,
My local dealer here in the free state of Texas closes his doors on Sunday, but another down the road closes his on Saturday and is open on Sunday.
Must be a conspiracy!
Bush lied cars died!
Mormons made me do it!
Yes, because government is well-known for its efficiency.
The most efficient way is for the boss to tell everyone on Monday that from now on, we’re closed on Sunday. If they lose even more money(and they won’t), they can choose to open on Sundays again whenever they want, without having to run to government to undo the rule.
We’re not talking about buying gas, or a new shirt. If someone wants to buy a Toyota, they aren’t going to cross the street and buy a Ford because the Toyota dealer was closed on Sunday.
Thanks … now I’m hungry.
What will they do about eBay and other online dealers. To hell with the car lots. Go online.
Hey, don’t give them any ideas
That’s one way to beat the competition… have the government stop ‘em from beating your pants off with laws. I moved here to Orygun 10 years ago from Utah, WoW, what a culture shock. These politicians remind me of NASCAR drivers, they only go left.
Great idea, close for half the time your buyers have to do business – sort of like an ice cream store closing if the temperature exceeds 90 degrees.
Would this apply to firearms as well?
Car dealerships are closed on Sundays here, but they stay open really late on weekdays.
Ummm…is there some sort of laws on the books that requires car dealerships to be open on Sundays???
Are they completely unable to think for themselves and control their actions on their own, deciding all by their little selves to just no be open on Sundays without having to impose an actual law banning it???
Am I the only one who is missing out on the reasoning behind this? Has this country really become a place where noone is able to do anything without the Government regulating and mandating it?
Cheeeerist but are carsalesmen really this lame and inept?