Niki Kelley, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has an article about this year’s installment in the perennial effort to have the General Assembly remove its ban on allowing businesses to sell alcohol to Hoosiers on Sundays. It’s not that our good friends in the State House don’t want us to get our drink on during the Sabbath — they just want us to plan ahead, drink and drive, and/or do it with craft beer straight from the brewery.
Kelley reports:
Hoosiers for Sunday Sales, a coalition of consumers and retailers, launched an effort Tuesday in support of legislation allowing alcohol sales on Sundays in drug, grocery, liquor and convenience stores.
According to HSS, this push is about consumer choice, convenience, and, yes, freedom. (Not mentioned – profits.) You don’t want to be against freedom, do you, General Assembly?
The liquor store association, which opposes the move, warns ominously of the dangers of deregulated liquor sales being sought by out of state interests. (Foreigners pushing freely available alcohol on Hoosiers?! What’s next, jazz cigarettes?)
“We tell you this today as a tale of caution because efforts to deregulate the sale of alcohol continue to be funded here by non-Hoosier interests with some local faces for appearances and window dressing. It’s not a Hoosier groundswell,” he said.
The liquor store concern is that they feel like, to compete, they would have to be open an extra day, increasing their overhead, and they would lose market share when, for example, the family picks up their beer with the weekly Sunday shopping at a big box store.
It’s easy for me to throw stones in either directions when the competing interests try to dress up what amounts to economic self-interest in the language of noble public policy. My personal preference is to have liquor sales available on Sunday. The prohibition specific to alcohol and specific to Sundays is anachronistic and arbitrary.
It’d be interesting to learn how independent liquor stores have competed, survived or failed in states with Sunday sales. (When I first moved to Indiana in 1986, a grocery store clerk refused to sell me wine vinegar on Sunday, and no amount of reason would persuade her. True story.)
I lived in Ohio until 1999 and Ohio had Sunday sales and the independents did just fine.
And I find the no carry out on Sunday a real pain in the ass and an embarrassment to our state.
I remember years ago we had a Formula One event on a Sunday with guests from all over the world. And I remember their jaws dropping when they found out they could not buy carryout beer.
Just imagine how fast they’d have left if they had tried the Miller Lite*. *Not actually a beer snob.
The pro-Sunday sales group could also use the phrase “reducing big government trying to tell you when you can buy your alcohol.”
And, I dunno, Chick-Fil-A doesn’t open on Sunday and they don’t appear to be hurting for money. (Yes, I’m aware it’s completely different. The moral high ground when you’re a liquor store is probably very narrow.)
Perhaps I’m wrong, but other than not selling alcohol to underage kids, I’m not aware of the positive impact of the numerous restrictions selling alcohol in the state of Indiana. Meaning, liquor stores can only sell certain products, etc.
The whole concept of blue laws is an interesting point from the standpoint of imposition of a moral behavior upon all citizens/businesses. Do notice that now there is not really being a point of moral behavior but more a protection of a particular business model. For those who complain about “big”” government imposing this or that it does seem inconsistent when they endorse a position such as the whole area of blue laws or protection of status quo business model.
I think it’s more protection of the campaign contributions that the Indiana Beverage retailers make throughout the state.
Dog, don’t mean to hijack the thread, but today is the 198th birthday of the state of Indiana. Ain’t God been good to Indiana.
I lived in New Mexico for several years. New Mexico, the Land of Intoxication, gave a slight nod to blue laws by banning liquor sales prior to noon on Sunday. Off to Mass, then off to mass intoxication.