COLUMBIA, S.C. - Retail businesses across South Carolina would be allowed to open at any time on Sundays under a bill give key approval by the House on Tuesday.

The legislation would do away with the so-called blue laws that have regulated Sunday retail sales since Colonial days. It would not change state or local laws regulating alcohol sales.

"I wanted to give business owners the opportunity to choose when it's best for them to open," said Ted Pitts, R-Lexington, who co-sponsored the bill.

It was great news for Gretchen Slosser, marketing manager for the Rock Hill Galleria Mall.

"Of course we will benefit greatly because we are in such competition with North Carolina," which open earlier on Sundays, she said. "We typically lose business because of that one reason, so for us that would be a huge positive."

It has taken twenty years to get the issue to get back on the House floor for debate, said House Speaker David Wilkins. What's different this year, he said, was the momentum among House members to leave the state religious roots behind and make Sunday a regular day of the business week.

In 1995, legislators allowed the sales of all goods on Sunday after 1:30 p.m. But county councils have the option to eliminate the restriction.

Pitts said the changes created an unfair patchwork of some stores that can open while other cannot.

"It gets government out of the business of telling business owners what they can and can't sell on Sundays," Pitts said of his bill.

But other lawmakers who oppose the bill say they want to stick to their Southern traditions.

"I know it's inconvenient for some folks," said Rep. James McGee, R-Florence. But with every change of the law "we lose a little bit of our culture."

Rep. Bob Walker, R-Landrum, is concerned the law eventually will be expanded to include alcohol sales on Sunday.

"I'm just one that believes we don't need to be doing any more than necessary on Sunday," Walker said. "I'm afraid it's going to lead to more open situations that I don't approve of such as beer and alcohol."

Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said she supported the bill because it clarifies that a worker who doesn't want to work on Sunday before 1:30 p.m. is protected as a "conscientious objector," unless they are an employee of a manufacturing or research and development company.

The measure needs a routine third reading in the House before it heads to the Senate, where its future is unclear.

Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, said when he was first elected in 1984, he supported blue laws because Sunday was a day that needed for rest and family. But law changes over the years have created problems.

For instance, his district includes Columbiana Centre, a mall that straddles Richland County, which allows early Sunday sales, and Lexington County, which doesn't.

"I'm supportive of total elimination," of the delayed store openings, Courson said.

Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville, said he would support Pitts' bill but pledged to fight any effort to lift the ban on retail alcohol sales. The reasoning, he says, is research shows that alcohol-related crime falls on Sundays.

Sen. Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree, says legislators should put this issue before voters in an advisory referendum.

"Sometimes you just need to look for guidance from the people," he said.

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Associated Press writer Jim Davenport in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.