The document discusses Sunday alcohol sales in Indiana from the perspectives of grocery stores and liquor stores. Grocery stores argue they should be allowed to sell cold beer on Sundays since they are already open and devote space to alcohol. Liquor stores counter that Sunday sales would increase labor costs without increasing revenue. The author believes demonizing alcohol can increase abuse and that liquor stores should innovate beyond best-selling beers and embrace specialty products. The author recommends liquor stores compromise by allowing Sunday sales but keeping their monopoly on cold carryout beer.

1. The time has come for Sunday sales
By Brad Klopfenstein
Tavern League of Indiana
The Legislature is in session, so it’s time once again for the annual discussion on Sunday
alcohol sales. I’ll try to frame the issue so that you have the ability to draw your own
conclusions prior to giving you mine.
On one side, you have the grocery stores, drug stores, and big box stores like Costco and
Sam’s Club. They argue that they are already devoting floor space to products that they
could otherwise be selling, they are open anyway, and the prohibition on Sunday sales
harkens back to old Blue Laws who’s time has long past. A small, but important nuance
in the Indiana code limits grocery stores to only sell beer and wine. However, any store
with a pharmacy is allowed to add spirits to that mix, which is one of the reasons that you
have seen a dramatic increase in the number of supermarkets with pharmacies.
Currently, these stores are only allowed to sell beer warm, but trust me when I say that
they would love to be allowed to sell cold carryout beer. Most of these stores would fall
into the category of large conglomerates, mostly headquartered in other states with a
regional or national presence. Clerks do not have to be licensed to sell alcohol, and any
person of any age is allowed in their stores and allowed to walk aisles with alcohol.
Since Indiana does not have a definition of a grocery store, in most communities, any
convenience store with a few grocery items can qualify for grocery store permits, which
are generally readily available.
On the other side of the issue, you have the liquor stores. Liquor stores argue that being
open on Sundays would not sell any more product, but would force them to increase their
labor costs by almost 15% by being open an additional day. Much like auto dealers,
liquor stores enjoy having one day a week mandated by the State of Indiana where they
can have a day off. Liquor stores are allowed to sell cold carryout beer, but are not
allowed to sell cold soft drinks and are otherwise limited to selling other items that are
common in the consumption of alcohol. So they can sell cheeses, salty snacks, cherries
& olives, mixers, glassware, and cigarettes, but they cannot sell other grocery items or
health & beauty products. Liquor store licenses are far more difficult to obtain due to the
fact that they must be located within the city limits of a town, and are restricted by the
population of the town. Those restrictions also make the licenses far more expensive to
obtain given their relative scarcity. Liquor stores are generally locally-owned, small
businesses. Everyone in the store must be at least 21, and all employees must be licensed
by the State of Indiana. They argue that they are far more regulated, and have a vested
interest in restricting access to minors given that selling alcohol is about all that they do.
However, they do not have the luxury of using alcohol as a loss-leader to drive traffic to
their stores. Grocery stores can make up the loss on alcohol sales on the sales of other
items. Liquor stores also say that changing the law now would wipe out the equity that
they have built up in their stores. Often, the owners of these stores have all of their

2. savings wrapped up in their business, and a change in the law would devalue their largest
asset.
So those are your players. If you believe that alcohol sales should be consumer focused,
then you fall on the side of the grocery stores. If you support Indiana small businesses,
and believe that alcohol sales should remain a highly-regulated industry, then you fall on
the side of the liquor stores.
What do I think? I believe that demonizing a product like alcohol can contribute to its
abuse every bit as much as increasing its availability. I also think that my friends in the
liquor store industry could do a better job of innovating given the limited amount of items
that they are allowed to sell. Your grocery stores are generally interested in selling
volume. They are concerned with turning product over, so they will typically stick to
selling only the top selling items in any category. Liquor stores should embrace that they
can offer a much deeper variety of beers and spirits then their competition. The industry
is moving more and more towards microbrews and specialty spirits. Embrace that
change. Insisting on competing on 12-pack Miller Lite cans is a business model that is
destined to fail.
Indiana opened up the door to Sunday sales by allowing bars and restaurants, and
microbreweries and wineries to sell alcohol on Sunday. Neighboring states have shown
that selling alcohol on Sundays does not lead to anarchy and rampant alcoholism on that
one day each week. My advice to my friends in the liquor store business would be to
compromise on Sunday sales and make sure that you retain your monopoly on cold
carryout beer as a tradeoff. Maybe insist that alcohol is not allowed to be sold below
cost. Otherwise, by sticking hard and fast to the status quo, they may find that they will
lose both Sunday sales and cold carryout, and Indiana could lose an industry that is still
very important to consumers.