Beer Laws In MN

Personally I would like to see 24/7 365 beer sales. We are becoming a 24/7 society more each day, so why should liquor stores be different from any other commercial enterprise?

 

The obvious answer is that liquor is a controlled substance.

 

There, I fixed it for ya! <-- insert dopey smiley winky thing

 

While I'm not entirely sure you understood my point (that the extra costs wouldn't be the 14 or 16% quoted by others on the thread), you've actually laid out a few more costs that are always born by the owner regardless if a store is open on a seventh day or not.

I don't think our beer choices will be compromised if a Sunday law is passed. Others do, but nobody knows for sure regardless of how many hypothetical numbers are thrown out. I lived in Madison before I moved to the cities. There were plenty of liquor stores competing with the grocery stores and the selection was great. I don't know if that would be the case here, but I know how it is in other markets with both Sunday sales and grocery sales. It's definitely not the doomsday everyone who's against the laws says it will be.

 

I love it. At least we can tax the hookers & pimps instead of raising the booze tax again.

I still have not read an agruement here that Sunday sales automatically results in grocery/convience store sales. Why does one have to result in the other?

 

I've heard this argument from people in the industry (& I'm probably over-simplifying). Right now, it would be inconvenient for your standard grocery store to be allowed real booze without being able to sell on Sunday (dedicated room, locked coolers, whatever). The theory goes that easing laws makes it simpler & simpler for grocery stores to sell booze without any additional cost & inconvenience.

Kind of like the slippery slope the NRA is always talking about...

 

But the state would still have to pass a law allowing grocery stores to sell real booze, no? Then the local governments have to allow the liquor liscences. That would run afoul of any municipality running its own liquor operation.

 

[quote="I still have not read an agruement here that Sunday sales automatically results in grocery/convience store sales. Why does one have to result in the other?[/quote]

You can probably add pharmacy's to the list of businesses wanting to sell alcohol. How thin can we cut the slices and still be able to keep our favorite stores from starving? This is indeed a slippery slope.

 

Not seeing it. How does Sunday beer sales result in Walgreens selling Surly?

 

Just wanted to voice in on another issue with MN laws - which allow a city to run a business for profit and does not allow competition. I hate buying from the municipal in the city I live in as they are arrogant, unresponsive and much more expensive. If I want any of the special releases from my favorite breweries, I need to join their "club" for an additional fee - and then pay an average of $2-3 bucks more for the privilege of being *****. I travel to neighboring community with private stores.
As to the issue of controlled substance, "Controlled" seems to mean who gets to make the money from sales - not about any other moral reasoning. I do agree that opening the laws to grocery stores and big boxes will hurt the smaller stores - but look at what is going on with the sustainable farms and local food sources etc. The market will define itself, as it should. Let's face the reality - the big box stores are not going to be selling most of the stuff we like to drink. We may see a change in the market where the mass produced, cheap alcohol sells at a larger retailer, and the smaller more specialized craft breweries and wineries will gravitate to the mom-and-pop specialty shops. The laws need to change and we need to voice our opinions to our representatives to make those changes.

 

Got it. Profit, private, competition, money, market.

 

This argument against Sunday sales is what I don't get:

Consumer: "Hey, we should allow liquor stores to be open on Sundays. It would be easier for consumers and Minnesota stores wouldn't lose money to stores in Wisconsin."

Retailer: "Well, we wouldn't have enough business on Sundays to make it worth being open an extra day."

Consumer: "OK, well you don't HAVE to be open on Sundays. Just stay closed that day. Other stores might want to be open though."

Retailer: "But they'd take all our Sunday business!"

Consumer: "?"

 

Everyone is chiming in with their opinions so I'm going to chime in with my solution.

To assure that liquors stores are as profitable as possible I propose the state of Minnesota passes a law mandating that liquor store can only be open one day a week, that day being Tuesday, and that on that day they can only be open for six hours. This would greatly increase their profit as they would be making a whole weeks worth of sales in six hours. Also, it would give liquor store employees six days off a week so they would benefit. If all that weren't enough, being that they could only be open on Tuesdays, liquor store owners and employees would never have to miss a Monday Night Football game. As you can see, my solution works out really well for liquor store owners. Consumers might not like it at first, but they will learn to plan ahead.

 

It's not that they'd take "all our Sunday business", it's that there would be many people who would seek retribution because "well, since you're not going to be open Sundays like XYZ store down the road, I'm not going to support your business anymore." These people feel a sense of entitlement even though they have no skin in the game. Right, wrong, or indifferent, this is how many people think these days.

On another note, there are many BA's who frequent the Wisconsin stores and write threads about what they find. If you feel we are losing so much revenue to these stores (and then you want to remove their one day of exclusivity) - then your notions would definately cause harm to those businesses as well. Another group that would be effected is all the on-premise spots. They rely on their Sunday driven business to help keep their doors open. You get the drinkers to stay home instead of going to their favorite watering hole and they will be hurt also.

This continued "selfish" push has the potential to cause a substantial degree of damage and hurt a ton of nice folks who've worked hard over the years to create great products and then get them to your table. Do all a favor by buying a little extra beer on a Saturday and feel good internally, knowing that you saved a few jobs and helped to protect some investments. IMO, this is what a true Beer Advocate would do.