Montana Attorney General Opinion 15-588

Opinion No. 588 Labor-Eight Hour Law-Restau- rants-Retail Stores. HI~LD: A restaurant where no mer- chandise is sold cannot be classified as a store. But where a restaurant en- gages in the sale of merchandise it becomes a store and is subject to the regulations and limitations of hours of labor in the Eight Hour Day Law. August 10, 1934. You inquire, first: "Can a restaurant OPINIOXS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 407 doing an ordinary restaurant business be classified as a retail store'!" A store is defined in Webster's dic- tionary as "any place where goods are kept for sale, whether by wholesale or retail." A restaurant where cigars are sold only as an incident to the busi- ness is not a store. (Dekenham v. Short, 199 S. W. 1147.) Therefore n restaurant where no merchandise is sold can not be classified as a store. You inquire, second: "Can a restau- rant doing an ordinary restaurant busi- ness be classified as a retail store when it is retailing any goods, wares, and merchandise in addition to, or other than, dispensing food to the public, as . for instance selling cigars, tohacco, Cigarettes, fishing tackle, etc?" The selling of goods other than meals changes somewhat the character of the husiness ana it would seem that such a place becomes a place where goods are sold at retail and, therefore, a store. A restaurant united with a bak- ery has i.leen held to be a store. (Rich- ards v. \Vashington )'. & M. Ins. Co., 27 N. S. 586.) A place where meals are cooked for customers and where oysters, cigars and lager beer are sold has been held to be a store. (Common- wealth \'. Whalen, 131 Mass. 419.) A saloon has been held to be a store. (Kelly '-. 'l'heodore Hamm Brewing Co., 168 N. W. 131.) r, therefore, believe that when a res- taurant engages in the sale of merchan- dise it becomes a store subject to the regulations as to limitations of hours of labor contained in Chapter 8 of the Laws of the IDxtraordinary Session of the Twenty-third Legislative Assembly.