Question

Some states have had laws restricting the sale of most goods on Sunday. Consumers, by and large, oppose such laws because they find Sunday afternoon a convenient time to shop. Paradoxically, retail trade associations frequently support the laws. Discuss the reasons for merchants’ supporting these laws.

Please explain in detail.

Answer 1

The prisoner’s dilemma is a speculative game set up showing a situation where people won’t like to work together even when it’s favorable to do so.

It’s well known fact that Sunday is a time when consumer gets time to do their purchasing. However, due to law enforcement their purchase is restricted and same is agreed by the retailers too. The reason for that might be that as more people wish to buy the restricted product, sellers might not able to provide the customers with them. Secondly if all consumers’ starts purchasing that restricted product on Sunday then it might be that the sellers operating cycle gets affected, and as result it creates some discrepancies in logistics part,

The retailers were in a prisoners' dilemma. They all wanted to close on Sunday to save money and not lose sales, but the temptation to cheat was high. Those who stayed closed while others were open would lose a great deal of sales. The law essentially imposed a very costly deterrent to cheating. Thus, it is the reason why merchants would support such laws.