Massachusetts Grocery Stores Won’t Be Able to Sell Items Soon

Massachusetts residents are out and about getting ready for the holidays. With Christmas right around the corner, some people are finishing up their shopping while others still need to get started. It's a fun but hectic time of year as the holiday preparations seem even shorter in 2024 since Thanksgiving came so late this year.

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If you are just getting started with your holiday shopping and need to grab some items from your grocery store, remember that you won't be able to wait until Christmas Day to shop at those places.

Massachusetts Grocery Stores Can't Open on Christmas Day 

Did you know that under Massachusetts law, grocery stores like Stop and Shop, Big Y and Market 32/Price Chopper, etc. must be closed on Christmas Day? It's part of Massachusetts' old blue laws. This applies to all towns and cities in the Bay State including Boston, Springfield, Worcester...everywhere.

If you run into some unexpected last-minute shopping that you need to do on December 25 you'll be limited to gas stations and convenience stores like Cumberland Farms, 7-Eleven, etc. That doesn't necessarily mean that every convenience store in Massachusetts will be open on Christmas Day, so if you have to make an emergency shopping trip, you may want to call ahead of time just to be sure.

I remember my wife and I driving around one Christmas morning looking for a pan insert for our Turkey. We went to places like Price Chopper and Stop and Shop but we were out of luck. We didn't know about the law back then. We solved the problem by using foil wrap in place of an actual pan insert. The situation didn't turn out to be a major emergency. Now, if it was the turkey, we would have been bumming.