Repealing “blue laws” and allowing Sunday alcohol sales would have far fewer negative impacts than doomsayers predicted.
That's according to a new research paper by Cristina Connolly and Alyssa McDonnell of the University of Connecticut, Marcello Graziano of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Sandro Steinbach of North Dakota State University. This study Journal of Wine Economics “Do your research,” from Cambridge University Press.[d] It addresses the impact of the repeal of Sunday Blue laws on alcohol sales and retail competition, focusing on Connecticut's 2012 policy change to allow Sunday beer sales in grocery stores.
Connecticut repealed its long-standing Sunday liquor ban in 2012, more than 100 years after the law was introduced and 30 years after the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled most of the state's other Sunday liquor bans unconstitutional. . Liquor stores can also open on Sundays, and grocery stores can sell beer on Sundays.
The repeal of blue laws is not without criticism. According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Tech Talk A 2008 study found that “repealing America’s blue laws would not only reduce church attendance, donations, and spending, but would also increase alcohol and drug use among religious people.”
Connecticut's repeal was opposed by liquor store owners themselves at the time, who expressed concerns about everything from the “social cost” of selling more alcohol to the additional costs of staying open an extra day.
“Connecticut liquor store owners and store association lobbyists argued that allowing Sunday sales would negatively impact their livelihoods,” the authors of the new study wrote. “Not only would they have to pay operating costs for an extra day of the week, but with Sunday being one of the most popular grocery shopping days, there was also concern that consumers would end up buying beer at the grocery store,” he said. “Particularly in Connecticut, liquor stores association claimed that liquor stores would lose sales, reduce employment or close as a direct result of this policy.”
The authors examined grocery store and liquor sales figures in Connecticut before and after repeal, using other states without Sunday drinking laws as a control group. They found “no evidence of a negative impact on beer sales in liquor stores.”
“Despite repeated claims by the Liquor Store Association, repealing these laws has not harmed liquor stores, suggesting that it is possible to repeal Blue Sunday laws without negative impacts on small businesses,” the report concludes. I built it. Additionally, the study also contradicted the claims of grocery store lobbyists who said Sunday alcohol sales “would have a large, positive economic impact.”
The same data also provides comfort to those who worry that alcoholism and addiction will explode if alcohol becomes available one more day a week. “Our estimates show that repealing these laws led to a significant increase in beer sales in grocery and liquor stores immediately after the policy switch, but that this effect subsequently disappeared.”
“There was an initial surge in sales, possibly due to the novelty of the policy,” they said. “This impact fades away after the first month and there is no noticeable impact on sales after week 7.”
As a result, repeal benefited both consumers and sellers while proving the doomsayers wrong. However, as another ban was ignored, this had a positive impact on economic freedom.