The old Southern blue laws that keeps some stores closed on Sunday mornings would finally change under a bill approved Tuesday by the House of Representatives.

The legislation would do away with laws that have restricted Sunday retail sales since Colonial days, but it would not change state or local laws regulating alcohol sales. The laws restrict retail but not other stores such as supermarkets or restaurants. In 1995, legislators allowed the sales of all goods on Sunday after 1:30 p.m. but not during Sunday church service hours.

County councils have the option of eliminating the restriction. Of the 46 South Carolina counties, nearly 40 still have the laws. Charleston County doesn't have it. The three counties around it do.

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

The bill was sought by a Columbia law firm representing chambers of commerce in the state.

"Our feeling is the majority of our businesses want the option of opening. It's purely their right to do so," said Quince Cody, director of the Greater Summerville-Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce. The 500-member organization voted Tuesday to support the repeal.

The Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce will vote later this week on supporting the bill, after its public policy committee recommended it, said Charles Van Rysselberge, president.

In the church-going Lowcountry, not everybody is comfortable with the idea. The Tri-County Regional Chamber of Commerce, which represents small towns in upper Dorchester and Berkeley as well Orangeburg counties, did not want to comment on the bill, said Director Bob Jones.

"I've got mixed feelings all the way," said Charles Weeks, of St. George, who still runs the family's Weeks Department Store the way his father, John Wesley Weeks, did -- Monday through Saturday, closed Thursday afternoons.

"Dad said he just didn't feel right about (opening on Sunday). It just wasn't the way he was raised," Weeks said. "I'm not against other people opening, that's their privilege. I believe the little bit of business we'd miss on Sunday we can make up. I feel comfortable the way I am."

The Rev. Arthur Manigault, of Berkeley County, doesn't shop on Sunday. That's the day he sets aside for worship.But Cindy Cody, who owns Old Bank Christmas and Gifts in Walterboro, supports it.

"Wal-Mart opens on Sunday and nobody pickets. I don't think people really care. The people who are going to church are going to go whether or not anything's open," she said.

It has taken 20 years to get the issue back on the House floor, said Speaker David Wilkins, R-Green-ville. What's different this year, he said, is the momentum among House members to leave the state's religious roots behind and make Sunday a regular business day.

"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. Pitts said the 1995 changes created an unfair patchwork where some stores can open while others 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.

Lawmakers who oppose the bill say they want to stick to their Southern tradition.

"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 will expand to include alcohol sales on Sunday.

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.

"People are sensitive about the religious aspect (of the repeal)," Cody said. But people today are finding they have to be more flexible with their leisure time. Because of that, churches have services other days of the week.

"Businesses recognize they have to have flexibility. Churches recognize they have to have flexibility. The customer's life is changing and they have to react to that."