Alabama: Alabama ABC extends emergency curbside alcohol sales
Source: https://www.al.com/
July 14, 2020
If you’ve enjoyed buying alcohol to-go from bars and restaurants around Alabama for the last four months, you can now indulge a little longer.
The Alabama ABC Board has extended the emergency order allowing curbside and to-go sales of alcoholic beverages at licensed locations in the state. The amended order will expire on Sept. 15, 2020. The original order was set to expire this Wednesday. The ABC Board voted to extend the order on June 25, 2020, according to an agenda from the June board meeting posted on its website. The amended order was officially signed and stated July 14 and will go into effect on July 16.
The ABC Board passed the initial emergency order in March after health departments around the state ordered bars and restaurants to halt on-premise consumption in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The order permitted businesses with liquor licenses to sell customers alcohol to-go, allowing bars and restaurants to serve as “drive up” package stores. The ruling initially limited establishments to sell 750 milliliters of spirits or wine or one six-pack of beer. The ABC later amended the order to allow businesses to sell up to 1 liter of hard spirits, beer in any size containers not exceeding 288 ounces, and wine in any size bottle or multiple bottles up to 1500 milliliters per customer.
Under a new emergency order from the Alabama ABC board, all businesses with liquor licenses can now sell alcoholic beverages curbside and “to go.”
Bars and restaurants have been able to resume on-premise consumption since May 11 under Gov. Kay Ivey’s amended “Safer at Home” order.
In an email statement to AL.com, the ABC Board said many licensees stated that the passage of the emergency rule benefited their businesses “during an extremely difficult time.”
“The ABC Board received a lot of positive feedback from our licensees regarding the emergency rule,” the ABC said via email. “The board decided to extend the rule due to the continuous rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in hopes that it will continue to help our licensees and the citizens of Alabama.”