I'm sure the change happened at different times in different places. But in the the late 70s, even in a big city like Boston/Cambridge, almost nothing was open on Sunday. If you played sports or had other activities on a Saturday, you basically had to find a way to carve half a day out of classes etc. to run errands.
And to one of the parent's points, when the debate about Sunday store closing laws came up in Louisiana in the 80s, one of the arguments against making changes was that mom and pop stores, largely staffed by the owners, couldn't realistically open for seven days while, for the big chains, it was just a dollars and cents calculation.
> mom and pop stores, largely staffed by the owners, couldn't realistically open for seven days while, for the big chains, it was just a dollars and cents calculation.
When Poland enacted its ban on Sunday shopping, things worked the very opposite: the law allows a convenience store to stay open 7 days a week if it is owner-operated, and indeed these shops are the places on which people depend on Sundays.
And to one of the parent's points, when the debate about Sunday store closing laws came up in Louisiana in the 80s, one of the arguments against making changes was that mom and pop stores, largely staffed by the owners, couldn't realistically open for seven days while, for the big chains, it was just a dollars and cents calculation.