Those businesses would be those stores which do not believe bigger is better, or that there is a need to shop in the middle of the night.

More to the point, more stores in Niagara Falls are seeking approval of an exemption which would allow them to open on some statutory holidays.

Back in the early 1980s, there was quite a battle which ensued between the provincial government and retailers in Toronto over Sunday openings.

Yes, there was a day when you could not go to any store and expect them to be open on a Sunday. Now, it would be considered an inconvenience or even a poor level of service to NOT be open on a Sunday.

At first, the key to open that lock was determined to be a store's proximity to a "tourism district". Well, as that definition got muddied to mean practically anything, it became commonplace for just about every store -- certainly of the chain variety -- to open Sundays.

From Sunday, it evolved to statutory holidays. From stat holidays, it evolved to 24-hour stores.

Now there are stores that never close.

Maybe I used to be a naive country boy who believed people should be able earn their living, have a sensible pace to their lives and have time set aside to put back into their family.

It is true, you can't make someone spend time with their family, for example, but the whole Sunday/holiday/24-hour erosion certainly has not proven a benefit to society as a whole.

I will say that it does allow me to pop out and find a 1/2-inch nut to replace the one that came off my lawnmower's wheel last weekend and was lost in the lawn. But not having that luxury wouldn't have upset me, either.

Imagine the forethought and planning it must have taken to survive the 70s.

It's 11 p.m. on a Wednesday and you realize you are out of diapers. What do you do? No stores are open. Even variety stores used to close at 11 p.m. A crisis to be sure. There was no 24-hour Shoppers Drug Mart to which you could run.

Borrow a few from a friend with an infant? Who knows. The world kept going, though.

Society has been pushed so far in the "rat race" direction it seems like such a token that any restrictions on retail still apply.

Tourist area or not, why bother governing when a store is open.

Every time I drive by Cole's Florist in Grimsby I marvel at the will and integrity of owner Harry DeVries.

Here's a fellow driving a hugely successful business which any who know it have seen it expand several times over the years. I'm sure compounding his business issues is the seasonal nature of the garden centre business, and the fact it is subject to the whims of Mother Nature.

Yet, the shop has yet to see a Sunday opening. Even on the nicest days of the spring, when all other garden centres are booming, Mr. DeVries chooses to keep his doors closed.

Now, holiday Mondays, for example, the place is full tilt, but Sundays? Nope. And there are a lot more Sundays in a year than holidays.

These days, I could go either way.

I have a lot of respect for those who stick to their guns and close Sundays. Stat holidays should be open season, if businesses pay the wage freight.

But why the government maintains any level of control over who opens anymore seems to be lost in a sea economic competition.

Society, generally, isn't even paying attention to that grayed line.