Tennessee: Liquor on Sundays? TN lawmakers, some store owners say yes

 

A proposed bill would change the way liquor stores and retail food stores operate. It allows them to sell liquor and wine at the same time as beer as sold, including Sundays.

 

Source: http://www.wbir.com/

Sean Franklin

January 24, 2018

 

Selling alcohol on Sundays is at the heart of a bill Tennessee lawmakers are debating this session, but the proposal is even dividing liquor stores.

 

Wednesday nights at MC’s Wine and Liquor are much busier than Sundays.

 

Of course, you’d expect that current TN law says they can’t sell liquor on Sundays.

 

“I would just like to have the right to open on Sunday if I choose to,” owner Chester Crowley said.

 

Crowley spoke in front of the legislature Tuesday in favor of House Bill 758, which lets stores like his sell alcohol on Sundays.

 

“I was able to answer questions, it was a great experience,” Crowley said.

 

Tennessee lawmakers are discussing House Bill 758, which says package stores and retail food stores can sell wine and liquor at the same time as beer is sold–that includes Sundays.

 

He likes the bill because he says he’ll make more money.

 

“About once a month I come to the store (on Sunday) to do paperwork or inventory, and there’s a constant knock on the door,” Crowley said.

 

Business keeps knocking, but Crowley can’t answer.

 

“They drop in here on Sunday, they see a vehicle, they think, ‘Oh, they’re open,’ but no, I have to turn them away,” Crowley said.

 

That’s why state Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, and his partners in the Senate are pushing for Sunday sales.

 

“We think that maybe it’s time for the government not to make so many decisions about when they have access to wine and spirits,” McCormick said.

 

10News reached out to multiple other Knoxville liquor store owners Wednesday who said they are opposed to the bill. They say the cost would be too much on Sundays.

 

McCormick said he’s open to listening to opposition, but he thinks it will help the state increase sales tax dollars.

 

“There are legitimate concerns, and we want to listen to those too–including some liquor store owners who don’t want to be open on Sunday, and we need to listen to them,” McCormick said.

 

Crowley said the cost of staying open won’t be high for him.

 

“Labor is the only extra expense that I would have, and that I could foresee, and it’s a nominal amount of sales that I would have to do just to break even,” Crowley said.