Smaller or local companies might not want to or be able to pay or staff their store on Sunday, but if you open it up then there will be a larger percent of consumers holding off their liquor purchases until that day, and larger or national chains that can afford and choose to operate on Sunday might squeeze out the locals.
The liquor stores and car dealerships are opposed to being open on Sundays for the exact same reason - they won't sell more product but worry that they'll have to pay for folks/utilities/etc to stay open on Sunday to be competitive. In essence, these sellers are asking regulators to protect them from competitors who might want to stay open on a Sunday. Its pretty simple at the end of the day. Its also ridiculous. Might as well have car dealerships say that prices should be regulated so that their employees can put more food on the table, etc. Perfectly anti competitive behavior.
apparently you should. because they are blocking your "free market." lols at you taking the argument to the person who is merely the messenger for whats going on. Good luck creating change by shooting the messenger next
The No Sum Gain argument of the car dealerships makes more financial sense. I can totally buy into the economics that consumers wont buy more cars on a 7 day shopping week vs 6. Not like ppl will say, screw this i'll keep tsking the bus or maybe buy a used car from an owner the Spec's argument seems weird to me. They'd totally take business away from grocery stores as a one stop shop for sunday football beer, wine liquor. and if they extend fri/sat hours to 11 like other states they steal the party liquor/beer runs will supply goes low my gut instinct is the grocery stores play into this issue. There are quotes about keeping status quo as a compromise with grocery stores and bid convenience store chains and gas companies to stop them from selling liquor like other states makes sense there is a compromise going in between competing industries
"Freedom to business owners" means not selling to black people or hippies to some older posters here, clearly. Here's one for you: Passover falls on a Sunday. You are invited to a seder. You need kosher wine and you want to buy something that doesn't taste like cotton candy. In Austin that leaves Spec's and Twin Liquors, but nope, because people like Mojoman want to oppress Jewish people with their antisemitic hate crimes
And think about the Jewish liquor store owners. They are forced to work on the sabbath, but not allowed to work on the Christian sabbath/Sunday. Actually, are there any Jewish liquor store owners in Blue Law states? Is it an anti-semetic conspiracy.
What an absurd, dishonest, and dumb ass thing to say, kid. Why don't you do us all a favor and grow up?
We've had the same debate in Minnesota which also still has blue liquor laws. The same argument has been put forward that liquor stores don't want to open on Sunday. I'm not sure how strong that argument actually is as there have been many liquor stores that have lobbied the MN legislature to allow them to be open. One other factor that is driving the debate in MN is that WI allows for Sunday liquor sales and many businesses argue that they are losing business to WI which is only half an hour away from Minneapolis. That argument carried a lot of weight when MN switched their bar closing time from 1AM to 2AM. My own feeling is that the law in MN will eventually be repealed but it hasn't been much of an issue to the legislature.
Aside from the stupid comment I replied to earlier, my feeling about Sunday liquor store openings is that I really don't care. Having said that, my liberal leanings would suggest that they should be allowed to operate. Why should religion be able to dictate when a store should be allowed to open or close? That's the crux of this topic. Take religion out of the equation and those businesses are open, with no one making the least bit of fuss about it.
I actually have no problem with grocery stores and convenience stores/gas stations not being able to buy liquor licenses. This is based on my interest in quality. The same goes for my interest in restricting access to recreational mar1juana licenses in CO. There is no doubt that grocery stores and convenience stores do not have much of an interest in providing high quality wine, liquor and the broadest selection of craft beers around. I think this is partly due to the power of large distributors for the low to mid range quality products. They can control placement. So, if you remove all restrictions to liquor licenses, and give access to every industry who wants to apply for one, then I believe the quality-brand sellers will suffer...just like what many say will happen to recreational mar1juana. How does this tie back to removing restrictions to current licensees? I'm speculating that the grocery store and convenience store/gas station lobbyist ... *and* the large distributors will then have more a reason to demand equality in access to licensees. My speculation is based largely in that it doesn't make sense to me why Spec's would be for Sunday restrictions. Only thing that makes sense to me is there must be some mutual agreement between them and the other wine/beer sellers (grocery stores) to divide the market.
Maybe this has already been explained but could you indulge me? IIRC HEB is the largest seller of wine in Texas. Why wouldn't they also want to sell liquor if they could? They wouldn't necessarily have to have a huge selection, but how about just some of the big names? Smirnoff, Jack, Crown, Fireball, Jose Cuervo? Don't you think they'd sell a ton of these?
Oh, I have doubt. It depends on the store, there are some c-stores around that have a beer selection that rivals any Specs. There's some HEB's that have outstanding wine departments.
Story from the Dallas Observer: Basically: Walmart, Costco, Kroger and Co want to own "package stores" in Texas, which in this case would be little liquor stores next to their normal stores. Currently they cannot own "package stores". Some guy who "follows" the liquor business thinks that these big companies wouldn't spend so much money pushing for the right to own package stores if they stood no chance of succeeding. IMO it sounds inevitable, but the existing package stores will fight it all along the way. Also: "Package Stores" (Spec's, Twin Liquors, Goody Goody, etc.) have a lobbying group that "regularly beats back attempts to repeal the law that requires package stores to close on Sunday". Spoiler
I think it should be treated like cigarettes are treated in Europe. No ads, severely taxed, large fines for breaking rules, etc. Time to squeeze this thing out of society like cigarettes. Lots of countries have had great success reducing % of smokers, I think the same can be achieved with alcohol without banning it. As for Sunday, it's stupid. Given how the US market operates, it's pretty obvious that bigger sellers have determined they will lose market share on the Sunday and they will find a way to mitigate for that problem before proceeding with pressuring the government into changing it. What kind of an American business says no to more revenue + no change in competitive advantage? lol Have you guys been asleep?
There are liquor stores that have argued in favor of lifting the ban but the associations have all lobbied against it (and put some solid money behind those efforts). I imagine Sunday sales will eventually happen. The Senate seems to be getting close. I'm surprised there haven't been attempts by the legislature to just punt on the issue and put it on the ballot. But the votes to repeal the ban are getting closer (partially because Republicans took the House). Ultimately, I also think you need a governor that will make an issue of this and considering Gov. Dayton's struggles with alcohol, I dont think he'd ever consider touching this issue.
