Indiana Sunday Liquor Sales - House Bill 1624

[PistolBob]

Today the Indiana General Assembly will be discussing House Bill 1624, a bill to allow the sale of package liquor in Indiana, on Sunday, by grocery stores, convenience stores, and liquor stores.

The bill is sponsored by House Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte - not that it matters but Tom is a right wing conservative republican.

The bill is in trouble because of amendments tacked on to it by other reps that are serving the Package Liquor Lobby instead of their constituents. The PLL does not want package booze being sold on Sunday for many reasons. Pricing, manpower, and distribution of product head the list.

From WTHR:

The amendments added to House Bill 1624 restrict where grocery and convenience stores display alcoholic beverages. The legislation also requires employees be trained in selling those beverages, which those in the retail industry believe is a costly inconvenience.

"If this amendment gets in the bill, we have to oppose it," said Grant Monihan, president of the Indiana Retail Council. "That's even more of an inconvenience to customers and we would have that inconvenience seven days a week."

The liquor store lobby, which supports the amendment, considers it "good public policy."

So...you need to call your state representative and let them know how you feel about this bill. If the loudest voice is the PLL, then this baby is dead as winter grass.

Indiana General Assembly

Go to the site and find your rep, and call them. Today. They are discussing the bill today. Do it now.

 

[chipbennett]

Screw the package liquor industry, and their lobby.

 

[PistolBob]

Screw the package liquor industry, and their lobby.

In this world the loudest squeakiest wheel gets the lube...right now they are speaking much louder than the voters. So call your rep and let them know how you feel.

 

[PistolBob]

Committee approves bill in a 10-2 vote...bill is now headed to the Indiana House. Contact your reps and tell them to take off the amendments, stop catering to the Liquor Store Lobby, and get this passed.

 

[zippy23]

employees trained to sell liquor is an inconvenience? What in the world. Its too costly to show a person how to read an i.d. and recognize if its booze!! my bet is the employees know more about their managers about booze......

 

[chipbennett]

employees trained to sell liquor is an inconvenience? What in the world. Its too costly to show a person how to read an i.d. and recognize if its booze!! my bet is the employees know more about their managers about booze......

The issue is, first and foremost, that the restriction is applied to one class of merchant, but not to the other class. That "training" isn't/shouldn't be needed for something that already requires production of ID to prove age in order to purchase is a separate issue.

 

[IndyGunworks]

And its ok for Kroger to sell liquor off the shelf Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday, but if this passes the wont be able to sell it the way they have been for years AT ALL, and will have to remodel ALL of their stores to meet the new requirement that the liquor lobby is calling "good public policy".

I hope this gets shoved so far up the liquor lobbies .......

 

[PistolBob]

And its ok for Kroger to sell liquor off the shelf Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday, but if this passes the wont be able to sell it the way they have been for years AT ALL, and will have to remodel ALL of their stores to meet the new requirement that the liquor lobby is calling "good public policy".

I hope this gets shoved so far up the liquor lobbies .......

It won't unless we all make some noise with the Indiana House.

The Speaker of the House is listed as Brian Bosma. Call him.
The Minority Leader is Scott Pelath. Call him.
The Majority Floor Leader is Bill Friend. Call him.

Then call your own representative.

You can Tweet the Speaker @brian_bosma

 

[IndyGunworks]

I have called, and gotten the same BS response everytime.... they don't give a **** about me, this is being decided by lobbyists and lobbyists alone.

 

[hornadylnl]

The issue is, first and foremost, that the restriction is applied to one class of merchant, but not to the other class. That "training" isn't/shouldn't be needed for something that already requires production of ID to prove age in order to purchase is a separate issue.

Seller A is required to follow rule list 1.

Seller B is required to follow rule list 2.

Rather than seller A and seller b unite to have both rule lists eliminated, they want rules from their list not on the others list to be added.

Yeah liberty!

 

[Hoosier8]

And its ok for Kroger to sell liquor off the shelf Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday, but if this passes the wont be able to sell it the way they have been for years AT ALL, and will have to remodel ALL of their stores to meet the new requirement that the liquor lobby is calling "good public policy".

I hope this gets shoved so far up the liquor lobbies .......

I have read the bill. Looks like it allows retailers to extend sales to Sunday. What part of the bill are you talking about?

 

[IndyGunworks]

The amendment that was added to get it out of committee requiring liquor to be "behind the counter"

 

[Hoosier8]

Yeah, finally saw that. Out of committee and has to go to the floor for a vote in the House.

 

[Baditude]

The amendment that was added to get it out of committee requiring liquor to be "behind the counter"

Good let it pass because most liquor stores have liquor on shelves too. That will teach the lobbyists

 

[IndyGunworks]

I am sure the fact that the WHOLE STORE is "behind the counter" it wouldn't apply to them.

 

[Thor]

I watched most of the debate on the web. For Walmart alone the cost in IN to comply with this is $50M. Guess who will get to pay that in higher prices. The amendment was a poison pill meant to kill legislation that the proposer of the amendment knew would pass.

This is rather like gun control as the pro-prohibition crowd tries for another step back down that road.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Screw the package liquor industry, and their lobby.

You know, the most complaints I see from people that work in liquor stores (not the lobby) aren't about the additional competition. It's that they might have to work on Sunday because for some reason all liquor stores will HAVE to open on Sunday. Um, hello? I know a lot of gun shops that are closed on Sunday and/or Monday, yet Walmart still sells guns and ammo on those days. Nobody is forcing them to open on Sunday if they don't want to.

 

[PistolBob]

Remember this: No one likes change but wet babies.

 

[phylodog]

The bill is sponsored by House Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte - not that it matters but Tom is a right wing conservative republican.

UNPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Twangbanger]

The Mom + Pop stores are an obvious bad guy in this, because they know a lot of grocery shopping happens on Sunday & don't want to see their sales get handled during Momma's trip to the store. They like the fact that the Sunday ban forces the "soccer dads" to make a special side-trip to buy alcohol. They know we guys are more likely to head into that convenient little corner liquor store, than fight the big box parking lot at Meijer.

But while we're at it, let's not forget that RESTAURANTS and BARS like having a monopoly on Sunday alcohol sales, also. It's not just Mom + Pop liquor stores. And what about places like Kirk's trendy hipster Microbreweries? Once they have their "carve-out," do you think they give a damn about anybody else's freedom?

When you start to add together the interests who benefit from this, it's not so hard to see why it's hard to get rid of.