I was shocked and confused when I discovered you can’t buy alcohol on Sundays in New York City. Isn’t this supposed to be the city-that-never-sleeps, an anything goes kind of place? If you move to the Bible Belt, you expect to suffer, but New York City?
hat the (booze-related) Blue laws (and the ultimate, Prohibition) was a religious thing - the rural (read: Protestant) out to inconvience the urban (read: Catholic).
Anyone else hear the same?
The NYC thing is bizarre - any history as to when/why that exceptionally out-of-place law came to be?
Anndddd…
how far west to you have to travel to be able to buy liquor on Sunday? (Package store, no special dispensation involved).
(I went directly from IN to CA, so have no knowledge of in-between (except: KS, UT, MN)
so -
post your state if it allows sunday package sales w/o special licenses (even if only from state-owned stores):
So far:
CA
In Maryland it varies by county, so I will have to stick with Baltimore County.
Here, you can only get your booze at liquor stores or bars with package stores. You can’t buy beer or wine in the grocery store or the 7-11.
The liquor stores are closed on Sunday, but the bars are open, so you can get what you want at the package store. Some bars only have a limited selection, though, and some only sell beer in their package stores.
As I said before, plan ahead and buy it Satuday. What’s the big deal?
but that is my point, we don’t need a law. if 85% of those people don’t want to drink or go to strip clubs… then those then people should stay home…and the people who want to should be able to.
I don’t drink much myself…and if i want to drink on a sunday, I will just buy it on saturday… but why should I I HAVE to? their law (as far as I know) is based on reglious beliefs…isn’t that preeching sepration or church and state? if they can make laws on their religious beliefs, can i make my own laws, too? i am only arguing the principle of the matter…
please ignore my typos lol
It seems to me that fundies have a convenient way of messing with facts. Like the idea that instead of being one of the first organized Christian groups Catholics are instead a satanic cult. It only seems logical to mess with that too since it can promote “unchristian” behavior.
secretkeeper78, I would suggest that you move about 100 northeast. Here in Asheville you can buy beer and wine at the grocery store on sundays, and we have an annoying number of pagans per capita[sup]1[/sup]. However, you can only buy liqour at the ABC store and that is closed on sunday. I’m pretty sure that bars and restaurants can still serve liqour drinks on sundays.
[sup]1[/sup]Funny Asheville Story: I recently attended an Asheville production of Jesus Christ Superstar. We are in the bible belt so it is not a surprise that the director and much of the cast were pretty hardcore christians. However, the guy who played Jesus is, in real life, not only gay but also a pagan. Does anyone else think “Gay Pagan Jesus” is a kick ass name for a band.
…100 miles northeast…
Up until about twenty years ago, you couldn’t buy beer or wine at a grocery store on Sunday until noon. My folks ran a small store and noticed a surge in sales of cough syrup on Sunday mornings.
Hard-core alkies were buying Robitussin because it was 10% alcohol.
This state now has no shame, State Liquor stores are open on Sundays. Many are conveniently located on the Interstate!
In California, you can buy alcohol seven days a week until 2 AM. In Connecticut, you can’t buy alcohol on Sundays or any day after 8 PM. To the best of my knowledge, blue laws in these two states do not vary by county. And even here in Berkeley, they really stick to those laws. I once tried to buy a 40 at a 7-11 at 2:02 AM and got turned down. I was pissed.
Richmond, Virginia is my favorite, where they have drive-through ABC stores. For the uninformed, an ABC store is… well, I’m not really sure myself. I think they’re somehow state-sanctioned liquor stores.
And you can buy your favourite bottle of Sauce-o-Plenty at the grocery store. Why go to a different store when you want some Jaegermeister or Vodka or something? (Actually, I know why.)
I rarely drink, but it’s nice to know that I can go to Ralph’s or Albertsons to buy sauce if I feel like it. (I’ll have to get used to state-owned liquor stores when I move to Washington – after I get through the bottles of scotch and stuff that have beeen sitting here unopened for 10 years gathering dust.)
I went to Albertson’s at midnight as I was turning 21 – and they didn’t card me! Argh! Oh, and hey, Johnny L.A., if you need any help with that stuff, you know, I’m your man. I’m here for you, buddy.
Has SCOTUS ever heard any cases on the subject? Seems like a separation of church and state issue to me… I can’t think of any secular reason for such laws.
Well, messing around with double-barrelled cannon will enlighten about reality you pretty quick.
We in the Yukon are heading steadily toward that sort of thing.
Although most of the booze has always been sold at the government beer store, most, if not all the bars will sell you beer, cider and hard liquor to take home. There’s also a couple of off-sales outlets that will do the same…and it’s pretty much always at a horrendous markup. The government store has a better selection and much better prices.
When I was much younger, it was legal to drive and drink beer, as long as you weren’t drunk. And it was also perfectly legal to wander about town with a beer in your hand as well. Fortunately, or un-, depending on your perspective, this is long gone. It does seem to have lessened the toll of drunks on the roads, although not eliminated it…
Last call at the bar is still 2:00 am for most, but the Breakfast Club opens at 9:00 am and has to close at 11:00 pm so I guess there is some kind of weird rule about how many hours they can be open. And you used to be able to get off-sales until 2:00 am, but they just changed the rules and now cutoff is midnight.
Oh, and the government liquor store is moving…again…to somewhere in the industrial subdivision…bootlegging is about to enjoy another boom, I suspect. That’s not been legal for somewhere 'round seventy years or so. 
Middle of North Carolina, you can buy beer and wine after 1:00 on Sunday. I think mainly it’s just out of respect for church hours. Of course ABC stores are closed state-wide on Sunday, they need a day off too.
Y’all think that’s rediculous? For a while I lived in northern New Jersey. Bergen County, to be exact.
Now in Bergen County New Jersey, it is perfectly legal for the alcohol store (selling beer, wine and liquor) to be open for business on Sunday. But Bergen County does have blue laws - that forbid evil, nasty, vile places of corruption and sin from being open on the holy day.
Yes, thanks to those blue laws prohibiting the sale of anything manufactured, the mall is closed on Sunday.
Drink all you want, but I dare you to try and buy a shirt on Sunday in Bergen County NJ.
Rediculous?
It’s the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and it is, indeed, run by The Man. In Virginia, you can only buy hard liquor from the ABC store and those stores are closed on Sundays. However, you can buy beer and wine from grocery and convenience stores and there are no restrictions on Sunday sales (at least in every county I’ve ever been).
My wife’s uncle is from Pennsylvania and was pleasantly surprised when he visited and found that he could buy beer from a grocery store and on a Sunday.
Huh?
I don’t know who or what gave you that impression, DoctorJ, but it’s wrong.
I’ve been working and visiting bars extensively since I was twenty-one, and it’s been my experience that Sundays can, and often are, one of the busier days of the week (Especially in a state where liquor and beer sales are prohibited on that day). It’s by far the busiest morning in the week (Think football and other sports). Even a Sunday night crowd can be impressive- it’s not that the place is packed or overflowing with people, it’s that the people who are there are usually drinking like fish (And this isn’t just one place I’m talking about here. I have seen it all over my fair area).
For a bar owner, bartender, server, what-have-you, Sunday’s can equal cash, and a lot of it.
Some of the reasons I’ve heard why people do this, from across the bar, have to do with issues from the night before (Hangovers), to Sunday restrictions on anything stronger than 3-2, and/or simply wanting to get ‘one last one in before work tomorrow’.
Sunday’s are no slouch, DocterJ, Sunday’s are good, all the way around.
Chris from Minneapolis (Where the liquor laws are fucked).
Huh? Why would this be a SOCAS issue? I see no element of establishing or endorsing a religion in blue laws, nor do I see a burden being placed on any particular religion. Just because most blue laws originated from religious people trying to force morality on others doesn’t mean that blue laws originated from relgious people trying to force religion on others.
Do I agree with blue laws? No. Do I think there is a secular purpose for them? No, but you could construe one - same as you could construe a public interest for Prohibition. I think the Supreme Court would throw any case out, as the federal government wouldn’t have any jurisdiction on a clear state matter.