Even 'Jeopardy!' has tough time explaining Bergen County's blue laws

If you don’t understand Bergen County’s blue laws, you’re in good company.

The folks at “Jeopardy!” seemed equally confounded on Tuesday night’s show when, during Double Jeopardy, this “Jeopardy answer,” worth $1,600, filled the screen:

“Bergen County, New Jersey has one of the USA’s last blue laws, banning retailers from doing this.”

The first contestant to reply — in the form of a question, of course — said, “What is selling alcohol?”

Host Alex Trebek said that wasn’t it.

The next contestant to ring in said, “What is selling alcohol on Sundays?”

After a pause, Trebek said, “We’ll accept that.” He then added, “Selling anything on Sundays.”

The second contestant upped her cash total from $4,800 to $6,400. But was she right?

Actually, no.

The category was “Tangled Up in Blue” — and that pretty much sums up how confusing these laws are to outsiders (and plenty of insiders, too).

In most Bergen County municipalities, alcohol can be sold on Sundays.

As for not “selling anything,” that isn’t quite right, either.

As most Bergenites know, they can buy food on Sundays. And they can buy beverages on Sundays. But purchasing shoes, dresses and anything else that might qualify as someone’s “Sunday best” is a Sunday no-no.

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Long story short: Residents can fill their carts with goodies at ShopRite but they can’t stop and shop at Nordstrom.

Bergen is often described as the last county in the country to prohibit most commercial shopping on Sundays, and the debate over the laws has raged for decades.

The laws came about at the end of the 1950s, when mom-and-pop shops got together with church groups and residents who were up in arms over the traffic caused by the growing popularity of large department stores.

The idea of these restrictions was nothing new. Blue laws were first instituted in the New World in the 1600s and have been repealed, reinstituted and redefined many times since.

New York struck down its blue laws in the mid-1970s. Most communities across the country began contemplating doing likewise.

At a time when more women were joining the work force and so many people (male and female) were commuting an hour or more to work, was it really practical to limit weekend shopping to Saturdays?

Since the greatest concentration of the county’s retailers is in Paramus, it wasn’t too surprising that the borough's mayor, Richard LaBarbiera, found the “Jeopardy!” question to be amusing enough to share on social media.

LaBarbiera hadn’t watched the show Tuesday night. But hours after it aired, he posted the question on his Facebook page and wrote: “Apparently BC made Jeopardy tonight...understand answers were incorrect and hysterical.”

The mayor also invited his followers who saw the show to weigh in on the matter. One wrote, “Yes, the answers were comical and quite frankly wrong!”

Otherwise, the post  drew a flood of blue law support. One supporter wrote on Facebook: “Proud to yell it from the rooftops or through the airwaves! We love our Blue Laws!” Another offered that "nothing is better than the Blue Laws of Bergen County!”

Others had mixed feelings. “As someone born and raised in Bergen County, I loved the blue laws," said Jill Ottingnon, a former Moonachie resident who now lives in East Windsor. "Now that I am in Mercer County for 12 years, I love not having [them]. It’s so much easier to get things done. But we are not as congested as Bergen County so it’s not a traffic issue here.”

The Record contacted the publicist for “Jeopardy!” who said she would be unable to comment on the matter immediately.

“We have to review the show,” she said.

In the meantime, it may be unfair to criticize the winning response, since the clue itself was almost impossible to answer.

What isn’t sold in the county on Sundays would take at least half an hour to answer correctly. Even in the form of a question.

Email: ervolino@northjersey.com