Here’s Jeff Jacoby:

Whole Foods knows that on the most food-oriented day of the year, some consumers run out of ingredients. ”It proves to be a very busy morning for people to get flour or baked goods,” Lannon explained. ”It’s for people . . . who say, ‘Ooh, I need more butter or another bunch of celery.’ ”

In short, Whole Foods was going to make its wares available to Massachusetts customers on Thanksgiving — just as it does for customers in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and two-dozen other states nationwide. Bay State consumers panicked over an eleventh-hour shortage of dried apricots or hazelnut extract would have been able to get what they needed before the in-laws showed up at the front door. Whole Foods employees wouldn’t have been required to work, but those volunteering would have earned double pay. Willing seller, willing buyers, willing workers — an economist looking at such an arrangement would have seen the free market at its best.

The attorney general of Massachusetts looked at it and saw a crime. In a stiff letter to Whole Foods last week, Attorney General Thomas Reilly noted that under Chapter 136 of the Massachusetts legal code, ”the performance of work on legal holidays is prohibited, unless permitted by a statutory exemption.” If Whole Foods opened its doors on Thanksgiving, the letter warned, it could face ”criminal and equitable enforcement actions to enjoin violations of the Blue Laws.”

Reilly ought to give his paycheck back to the state treasury this week. What a ridiculous waste of his time.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 at 12:22 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.