Attention Whole Foods Shoppers: Buy your turkeys and trimmings before Thanksgiving. Massachusetts has warned the upscale Whole Foods supermarket chain that it will risk criminal charges under the state's "blue laws" if it goes ahead with plans to open on the holiday.

David Lannon, president of Whole Foods Market's North Atlantic Region, said its Massachusetts stores will remain closed on Thanksgiving. "We're not going to break the law, he said. "If the blue law says we'll have to be closed, we have to be closed." Some Whole Foods stores in the state had opened on Thanksgiving Day in the past after obtaining special permits from cities and towns and were mobbed by last-minute shoppers.

Many of the state's Puritan-era blue laws, passed in the 1600s to keep colonists at home or in church on Sundays, have been repealed, such as a ban of liquor sales on Sundays. But one that remains in effect requires all stores, except convenience stores and gas stations, to close on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Massachusetts' blue laws require all stores, except convenience stores and gas stations, to close on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.