What Do The Bodegas Think?

The battle lines have been drawn in the debate over whether Connecticut should allow alcohol sales on Sunday. On one side of the battle is the package stores who contend that allowing sales on Sunday will not increase sales (and therefore tax revenue) and Senate Republican leader John McKinney who contends that allowing Sunday sales would hurt small businesses. On the other side of the coin, the supermarkets and other proponents of Sunday sales say lifting the Sunday ban will increase sales and tax revenues.



While plenty of reasons are bandied about on both sides of the argument in Christopher Keating's Hartford Courant article, perhaps the most salient point is made with the use of raw data;


"Overall, 14 states have adopted Sunday sales since 2002, including New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Kansas, Hibbard said. All of them have had increased sales of 4 percent to 10 percent, including a 10 percent increase in New York state. There was a 14 percent increase in sales in Montgomery County, Md."


Let's face it; what's really going on here is the supermarkets are already open and staffed on Sunday so why shouldn't they want to sell beer? Not only would they see an uptick in sales, but they would save a few minutes putting those tarps over the beer on Sundays. The package stores aren't open and don't have to be staffed on Sundays. Pretty much they don't want any additional competition or cost. While package store owners benefit from old fashioned laws banning liquor sales on Sundays, it is consumers who suffer by losing the ability to buy a consumer product on what is essentially a random day of the week.

But....we are a little confused; what of our beloved local bodegas? We've heard rumors that you can purchase beer at some of those on Sundays.  From what we understand this can be a somewhat difficult task for those that are Caucasian as they seem to come under suspicion when attempting to make a Sunday score. Our insider told us the best strategy is to be in line behind a customer who is already making an alcohol purchase. Once a Sunday beer purchased is witnessed, the chances of making a Sunday score will greatly increase.