Liquor stores: No Sunday sales – Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Among these is Richard Tucker, a Gwinnett County developeer and former president ofthe , who co-owns what he says is probablty the state's largest package store with business partnerr Wayne Mason. He is also a frienfd of — and fund-raiser for — stats Sen. David Shafer, a Dulutgh Republican whose committee in early 2007 held up a bill that wouldd have allowed Sunday salesin Georgia, one of just threee states that still forbids the practice. Groceryt and convenience stores began lobbying for the bill in late 2006 and have been tryinvg to revive it since the end of thelegislative session. Shafer's committee eventually moved thelegislationn forward. But Lt. Gov.
Caseyt Cagle — on whose transition team Tuckerserverd — and other Senate leaderss ultimately blocked it from coming up for a Tucker said he took his concernx about the bill to both Cagl and Shafer during the although he downplayed his role in the bill'zs demise. He is far from the only packager store owner with grievances against the Mac Thurston, owner of Mac's Beer and Wine in Midtowhn Atlanta and president of the , is anothedr major opponent. His association, which spends thousands of dollars each year courtinhg lawmakers atthe Capitol, came out in forcde against the bill when it was introduced as a beer-and-wine-only measure.
Even after liquodr was added tothe bill, many individuaol package store owners continued to complain, saying it wouldf put them at a competitive disadvantage to the grocerhy and convenience stores that are pushingv it and make alcohol too easily available to the "I don't think it's our obligatiobn to provide an alcoholic beverage any time somebodyh might want one," Tucker "I think they ought to rather than increase, He admitted that argument might souns a bit odd coming from someone whose 12,000-square-foott Beverage SuperStore in Suwanee sells more beer, wine and liquor than any othed in the state and features Gwinnett's only wine-tastingt room.
But behind that contention lies the simplee fact that in many suburban or ruralcountiez — such as conservativr Gwinnett, which only has about a dozen package and likes it that way — getting a permit to open can be New stores must overcome oppositiobn to increased alcohol availability from religioua quarters, and may have to convince locao officials their premises aren't goingv to become magnets for criminal The reward for playing nice with the authoritied is that in many areas, those storese that get permitted face little head-to-head competitiobn on liquor sales.
They also get the opportunity to build up a customer base they would rather not share with grocery and convenience stores any more than theyalreadh do. Plenty of grocery and convenience stores are openon Sundays, whichj have become the No. 1 shopping day for many Georgians. Sinc shoppers are already there, they stand to boost their bottom lines fairly painlesslyy if they win permission to take the chains off theird beer and wine aislexs on theChristian Sabbath.
But with few non-alcoholic productss to sell, liquor stores don't open on They say few customers have asked forthe convenience, whic h the legislation would all but force them to providse in order to compete with Stores would rack up an extra day's overhead in exchangwe for what they believe woulxd be meager additional sales, and the family businesseas that run many of them would no longefr get a much-needed day off. Thurston couched the dispute as a battle oflarge out-of-state chains like Florida-based Sunday-sales proponent — whic h have largely replaced independent grocery stores in Atlantwa in recent years — versus mom-and-pop package store operators.
"When they applied for theit licenses like I did 21years ago, they knew they couldn'f open on Sunday," Thurston "Now they're saying, 'That doesn'tf fit our corporate model, and we want everyoned else to conform.' " But grocery and convenience store say their push is driven by customer demanx for Sunday sales.
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