After years of disputes and failed attempts at change, lawmakers voted earlier this year to do away with the prohibition of liquor sales on Sundays in Minnesota.
Sunday, July 2nd marked the official day that the new liquor laws went into effect. The Sunday liquor law dispute dates back 159 years. It was known as one of the “blue laws” where sales of cars and alcohol were prohibited on Sundays since it was thought of as a day of rest and worship.
For many consumers, this marked the end of an era, and many on social media were paying homage to their new ability to walk into a liquor store on Sunday. The hashtag #SundaySalesMN was trending Sunday on Twitter.
Some made sure to still make sure that consumers made an effort to shop at smaller businesses:
Today, try to shop at small, independent liquor stores that fought for and supported #SundaySalesMN .Enjoy the repeal! Cheers! #sundaysales
— Jason Alvey (@Alvey_MN) July 2, 2017
Some Businesses Not Abiding
While the law has officially gone into effect, businesses do have the option of deciding whether they want to be open on Sundays or not. Some liquor stores have decided to stay closed even with the passage of the new law.
Some liquor stores have claimed that there is no real benefit to being open on Sundays and all it really does is force employees to work one more day of the week. Others say that this forces the smaller stores to be open on Sundays so they don’t risk losing customers to the bigger retail stores.
Under the new law, cities do also have the option to disallow Sunday sales. The only city currently doing this is the city of Ely.
Long Term Effects
It remains to be seen how Sunday liquor sales will affect businesses in the long run, both small and large. One thing is for sure, retailiers will spend more to be open for another day during the week.
Although the initial surge of sales on Sundays is expected to be profitable for businesses, the real question is will it stay that way well into the future? Or will people return to their old ways of buying ahead of time on Saturdays? Time will tell.
For now, just remember you don’t have to stock up ahead of time!
