Guess Who's Fighting To Keep Indiana Dry On Sundays?
The convenience stores will tell you this battle is all about, well, convenience for consumers.
Right now, if residents want to kick back with a cold beer on Sundays, they have to plan ahead. That's no good for customers — and no good for convenience stores, either, says Dave Bridgers, vice president of Thorntons, a convenience store chain.
"Not having the ability to sell what our customers want impacts our bottom line," Bridgers says.
Even though Thorntons was founded in Indiana, it hasn't opened a new store in the state since 2006 — and the state's antiquated liquor laws are the reason why, Bridgers says.
"We will continue to invest in other states," he adds, "where laws are more business friendly to our company, and where it makes the most economic sense."
Thorntons has been expanding in bordering Kentucky and Ohio instead. But, along with other retailers, it has also spent the last five years lobbying Indiana's general assembly to change the state's alcohol laws. After legislation failed to gain traction again this year, these retailers filed a federal lawsuit seeking to sell cold beer.
"You don't have choice. You don't have competition," says Scott Imus, who heads the convenience store owners' trade association. "We've done extensive price surveys at liquor stores and find that they add either $1 to $2 on a case of beer, on cold or warm. I mean, Subway doesn't charge more to heat my sandwich."
You might think that liquor stores would have the most to gain from Sunday sales. So why are they fighting to keep Indiana's blue laws intact?
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