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Ontario shoppers find ‘due to Victoria Day this aisle is closed’

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[People pass by a Shoppers Drug Mart in downtown Toronto on Monday, July 15, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy]

If you visited a drugstore on Victoria Day, only to find that many of the aisles were cordoned off with police tape, rest assure that no crime had been committed.

BlogTO posted a photo of such a roped off aisle at a Toronto Shoppers Drug Mart, with a sign that reads, “Due to Victoria Day this aisle is closed sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.”

The bizarre photo stirred up some reaction, with comments ranging from baffled to dismissive.

In fact, by sectioning off areas of the store, the store’s owners were actually avoiding fines under an antiquated Ontario bylaw that was enacted in 1990, and updated in 2006.

The Retail Business Holidays Act “strikes a balance between allowing businesses to remain open and providing consumers and employees with a common day of pause,” according to the Government of Ontario’s website. The act requires businesses to be closed on nine specified days of the years, mostly major and statutory holidays.

The act applies to retailers that sell “handicrafts and book or magazine stores that are less than 2,400 square feet with a maximum of three employees, pharmacies under 7,500 square feet, nurseries, flower shops, gardening centres and gas stations.” Some stores established in tourist areas may remain open under specific municipal bylaws.

Fines for remaining open on prohibited days range from $500 for a first offence to $5,000 for a third or subsequent offence.

In an email to Yahoo Canada News, a representative with Shoppers Drug Mart explained that the act allows sections of stores to remain open in order to provide important products to its customers, like medicine.

“The regulations in some cities (like Toronto) have been altered to allow for pharmacies to rope off a portion of the store, allowing customers to have access to important needs pertaining to their health (like prescriptions and over the counter medications),” the email states.

But commenters on BlogTO’s Facebook page weren’t having it.

“It’s not like people live nine to five lives anymore,” wrote Irene Markoja “The Retail Business Holidays Act needs to enter the 21st century.

Janis Biondolillo admitted, “I snuck behind the tape last holiday to get my vitamins.”

Susan Evitts also worked around the problem. “I just sneak under the tape. No one ever says a word.”