Bill Ruthart, writing for the Indianapolis Star (link is to the Courier Journal version), has an article on the Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverages hearing on Sunday liquor sales. The issue seems pretty clearly to be whether to offer protections to liquor stores not available to smaller stores selling other products.
Nobody seems to be advancing the original rationales about the morality of selling evil liquor on a holy day. Instead, the assumption seems to be that total liquor sales will remain static while the time over which the product is sold will increase by a day. This will result in lesser profit for the liquor stores, more market share for big retailers, and no appreciable increase in overhead for the box stores because they’re open anyway.
I don’t want the good liquor stores to go out of business, but I don’t really care about the seedy ones selling low end stuff staffed with employees who don’t know much about what they’re selling. Regardless, though, I don’t know of any reason why businesses selling alcohol should enjoy protections not available to those selling, for example, sporting goods. Sporting goods stores have to compete with big retailers even on Sundays. A really good sporting good store (the REI in Denver being the best one I’ve personally had the pleasure of enjoying) can be invaluable. A low end one without knowledgeable staff is just redundant.
For legislators gathering information on the subject, one approach might be to find a state with similar alcohol laws but with Sunday sales and see what that has done to the alcohol industry in that state. Liquor laws being what they are, however, I don’t know how easy or hard it would be to find an apples-to-apples comparison.
Small stores that have their act together – good product, better staff – won’t go out of business.
The stores that are counting on the law to stay in business are doomed.
I really don’t care that much about this, as I only use alcoholic beverages for cooking, but I don’t understand why you think that a change in the law that will benefit the big box stores will hurt the low-end liquor stores but not the good ones. Small, locally owned businesses, whether good or bad, are hurt by advantages that big-box stores have. And anyway, why can’t a local business person decide to make money by mainly selling the the cheap and popular stuff? That’s what the big box stores do. Doug, you seem to be suggesting that only the high-end liquor stores deserve to stay in business.
Small liquor stores manage to compete with box stores every other day of the week. Why should Sunday hurt them? They have better selections and better staff. The amount of liquor or beer needed to cover costs of being open one more day per week should be easy for the stores to reach.
I’m originally from Michigan, and we have a law that prohibits the sale of liquor until noon on Sundays. I guess the moral legislators figured churches all let out by that time. But I digress; this law has done nothing to hurt Michigan liquor stores. Given the increase in liquor sales in the last year, Indiana stores should be demanding access to the market on all days of the week.
What I want is for the high end ones to stay in business and I don’t care about the low end ones. That’s personal preference, and I don’t know at all how the regulatory change will shake out in terms of that preference.
My main question here is why small liquor stores deserve special consideration not given to small stores selling other products. I don’t see any sound reason to give them protections not given to other kinds of specialized retail stores.
Isn’t it funny how the Republicans want free market and for Government to butt out, but it’s those same legislators who will pull out their Bible and thump it to justify denying liquor sales on Sunday.
Just sayin…
Again, the distinction between a sporting goods specialty store and a liquor store is that the sporting goods merchant can stock whatever he pleases, ship his product to customers across state lines, and sell ten thousand tube socks to another retailer in Omaha. And he hasn’t paid a king’s ransom for a golf ball selling permit, though maybe that’s not such a bad idea.
And, again, this issue will be about “free” markets when the Indiana consumer can buy on the internet, from the great specialty retailers in New York, DC, California, or Chicago, or directly from the source, and when huge money interests can’t buy themselves an “issue” in the World’s Third-Worst State Legislature™.
Good points, Doghouse. I guess I won’t be holding my breath for rationalization of Indiana’s liquor laws.
Well, I’m NOT advocating the blocking of Sunday sales here, but the difference between a sporting goods store and a liquor store from a morality stand point is that there aren’t nearly as many deaths from playing golf while driving. Bible morality aside, I wonder what the crime and drunk driving statistics are for sundays vs. the rest of the week between Indiana and other states? I would SUSPECT that drunk driving would go DOWN if stores were open Sunday because people wouldn’t be going to the bar as much and having to drive home.
As far as “Big Box” vs “Small store” that makes sense. Big box isn’t going to increase their overhead selling booze because they are already open sunday anyway. A small store is going to increase their overhead a lot if they choose to compete because they have to turn the lights on, have staff come in, etc. I see their point, but like Joe said, if those stores can’t absorb another day of overhead and sales, then they are too close to the bubble anyway.
So, since there is a probably pros and cons on both sides, I side with “freedom” and think that they should just get rid of these antiquated rules. This can then free up their time to start talking about the legalization of other “drugs” that are far less destructive than alcohol…
Does operation on Sunday cost more than Saturday? Why would one day’s income vs expense be a worse ratio?
The theory is that they won’t sell any more alcohol over 7 days than they do over 6 days. (I think this assumption is questionable). I have seen the contention that the 6 days worth of sales will now be stretched to 7 days, meaning additional costs for the liquor stores without additional revenue.
Jason, the argument’s more that a little disingenuous; it’s thrown up to see what sticks. Package store owners have seen this coming down the pike for ten years, and they knew what the outcome was when they lost on beer baronage a few years ago. Sunday would probably be a profitable day, though it might subtract some from Monday in the process. (Consider that, twenty years ago, you couldn’t find a liquor store in Marion county, anyway, open on Thanksgiving, despite the fact that it was legal–and, hey, when are we getting the “freedom” to buy booze on Xmas, New Year’s, and Election Day?–until one of ’em broke the ice. Now they all manage to afford to be open all day long.)
What I suspect it might do, though I doubt many employers of minimum-wage earners much care, is fracture the employment equation. You’ve got stores open late at night, whose busiest times are the weekends. A guy who needs extra income might work one or two of those nights and still have a day off, but now he’s facing three nights, a late Sunday before an early Monday morning, or losing hours to someone who’ll agree to work ’em. People eventually burn out. That’s why car dealers agree amongst themselves to close Sundays. Of course, Wal*Mart and Kroger don’t sell cars.
I have a feeling that even the poorest liquor stores near Indianapolis Motor Speedway will find that the race day sales they make will cover their margin for the rest of the year.
I was living in Boston in 1995, and the Blue Laws in place only allowed Sunday beer sales in – get this – bars. So you couldn’t buy a six in a store, but you could buy it at Louie’s Corner Lounge.
I don’t know if that still is the case, but every time discussion of it came up, the bars raised hell that it wsa going to kill their Sunday sports crows. A lot has changed since then, both in attitude and the distribution of sports entertainment, so I don’t know if the laws have changed, but I am a would be more than a little surprised if the bar lobby doesn’t get into things.
My guess is that local liquor stores could stay at 6 days and not lose sales. I think most people go to a liquor store for reasons other than just the product. It is like any small business vs. big box – their competitive advantage is not in convenience, but in service, selection, advice, etc…
Apologies for the typos, fingers not working well today.
@Griff: small businesses tend to be closed on Sundays because that is often the only day that the staff and/or owners can have off. Therefore, Sunday liquor sales would (presumably) be a huge benefit to stores that are open every day and also happen to sell liquor.