Why would a government regulate when a business may be open?

"In Finland, markets and stores smaller than 400 square meters may be open mon-fri 7 am. - 9 pm., sat 7 am. - 6 pm. and sun noon - 9 pm.

Stores larger than 400 square meters have no right to be open on sundays, except 1st June - 31st August and 1st Dec - 31 Dec."

Can somebody explain what the Hell this accomplishes?

some form of workers rights laws???

don't know about finland.

But what did all the "blue laws" right here in the U.S. do? The ones that said "no car dealerships, liquor stores" open on sunday. I think those had some religious underpinnings.

Finland elected a president living in "sin".

And if it was about workers' rights wouldn't they regulate it France-style?

something about energy conservation, or something about making sure people get home at a decent hour.

would be my guess as well. Open only in summer and for Xmas.

Small shops move a minor enough inventory, that they do not force haulage, and other parts of the econmoy to be working that they can do their job... whereas a large supermarket for example requires not only that is staff be on hand, but an army of truckers and other professions to keep things moving. Keeping the larger bits shut down keeps the economy from becoming a 24x7 working economy where people have no time to be off work together.

That's my guess, but it seems a certain wisdom... wisdom that surely does not make sense in a land of massive 24x7 walmarts and denny's.

(Edit: Germany)
It's to protect the employees. "Normal" stores may only open from 7AM to 8PM Mon-Sat .

Stores near train stations and one-man-shops can open whenever they want( as long as the owner has some talent at dodging regulations). The effect is:
gas stations turn supermarket at night and the stations are complete shopping malls quite often. (at least in a decent city). The high labour cost keeps the number of such markets in check.

There were many attempts to remove the restrictions (until last month Saturday was 9AM -4PM ), but the conservatives are stopped by the churches and the Social Democrats by the Unions.

What it looks like is a fair labor law preventing people with Mom and Pop stores from working themselves to death.

The larger stores, with likely more employees, are not permitted to use that advantage to put little guys out of business.

Except during summer vacation time, and Christmas shopping time.

Kinda sweet. Finland is preventing its small, unique stores from being replaced by, say, The Gap.

So that they won't be run out of town by the bigger ones. 400 square meters is a pretty decent size -- figure about 65x65 ft -- so it will cover most local emporia but not the big box stores or even a US-style supermarket.

I'd like to see minimum times that businesses, especially restaurants, have to be open. It's impossible around here to find one that's open on Sunday's. I had McDonald's twice today since that was the only place open. Yuck! A couple of friends of have opened restaurants, but it's hard to compete with the established guys Mon-Sat even when they were open on Sunday to huge crowds. As for other businesses, it's a pain in the neck when you drive all of the way to a place only to find-out they're closed on, like the local hardware store, on Monday afternoons, Tuesday mornings, and all day Wednesday. I've ended-up getting in the habit of calling places before I leave. Laws preventing businesses from such crap would really save time and hassle.

we call it zoning. There are LOTS of reasons not to let a business open unusually long hours. Usually they involve what impact those hours would have on the nearby neighborhood.