Thursday, February 08, 2007

Sunday Alcohol Sales

There is a current proposal in the Georgia House to repeal the law that bans the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays (laws like this are also called "blue laws"). [Technically, it is a law to allow local jurisidictions to decide the issue.] The ban currently covers liquor stores and sales of beer in grocery stores, but does not cover drinks purchased in restaurants. Do you think this will have any economic impact?

(Source: Drew W.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that because alchohol could be available outside of restauraunts, this could hurt the sales of the restauraunts. There are people who really prefer to have a drink while they eat. Because some people may enjoy a drink, they probably would not go out and eat dinner. I think that they would stay home. Another point is that i do not know how often people go out to eat in Sunday nights anyway. Maybe if it were a friday or saturday the opportunity cost of eating at home would be a little higher. People are not going to go out and eat on Sundays if they can stay home and have a drink.
-Schulz

Anonymous said...

People are not going to decide to not go out and eat based on being able to buy alcohol or not. If someone is planning on going out to eat, they are going to go whether or not they can buy alcohol there or bring some home. As for the economic impact, there will be an increase in sales, although a very small increase. There are many various sporting events and parties that go on sunday, but truely if you cannot buy alcohol on sunday, there is not problem going out early and getting it saturday. So if there will be an increase in sales, it will be too small to really make any difference.
-Ryan Schoettler

Anonymous said...

I don't forsee this law doing much of anything. Honestly, I find it hard to believe that there would be large amounts of people rushing out on Sunday to go get alcohol. Because you have work and school the next day, the cost of staying up late and drinking or having a few drinks and feeling the effects in the morning is much higher than the beneft of getting a good nights rest or relaxing. Friday and Saturday seem like much more popular nights to drink and in regards to the restaurant business, I don't really think that people who go out to eat have to have a drink. I could see it being an occaisional problem, but for the most part, there shouldn't be that much of a change in sales or demand at all.

-John Schmidt

Anonymous said...

I agree with Shotty in the aspect of the restaurants business; alcohol sales would only minimally effect the majority's decision to eat out or stay in. But I think that this law being passed may have a larger impact than John anticipates. Sunday is still the weekend and many people try to make it last as long as possible. Unfortunately, people may start to notice more of their employees calling in sick on Monday's than before. It may not create a huge change but there would most likely be small noticeable consequences for it. On the other hand, if it produces profits then I guess there are positive consequences too-for some people.
-Lauren