Press release sent to [email protected]:
Georgia is one of only three states in the country that does not provide some option for the off-premise sale of beer, wine, or liquor on Sunday. Because Georgia is the only state in the Southeast with a total ban on Sunday sales, we are at a distinct economic disadvantage. For many Georgians, the current law defies common sense. “The state allows us to drive to a restaurant on Sunday to buy alcohol, but the state won’t let us go to the corner store to buy beer to drink in the safety of our own home,” says Zak Koffler, one of the organizers of the rally.
Moreover, shopping patterns have changed in Georgia. Sunday is now the highest volume shopping day in many areas throughout Georgia. Yet customers who enter a retail store on Sunday are prohibited from purchasing alcohol. “As a busy mom, Sundays are the best days for me to do my family’s grocery shopping since our Saturdays are filled with soccer games, birthday parties, and other family activities. Yet, I have to make a separate trip to buy a bottle of wine,” says Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, a state representative from Decatur and mother of two.
Two bills to allow local communities to vote on Sunday sales are currently pending in the Georgia Legislature, Senate Bill 10 and House Bill 69. Both measures are currently held up in committee.
The strangest Texas Blue Law concerned drinking beer while driving. When I lived in Texas, it was against the law to drink beer while driving between 2:00 AM and 10:00 AM Sunday morning.
At other times, it was legal, if you were 18 or over, to drink beer while driving a car, as long as you were not intoxicated or impaired.
I think the law has changed, probably under federal pressure.
That does seem strange. Could you give one away?
“You could not buy a bible on Sunday,”
WTF?
I remember that when a store just over the Macon County line started advertising Sunday beer sales all over Auburn, Alabama (Lee County) radio, Sunday beer sales finally got legalized in Lee County, after several unsuccessful attempts.
In 1977 I was on a trip through New Mexico, which at the time (maybe still) had “blue laws’ restricting sale of alcohol on Sunday. When my friend tried to buy beer at a convenience store, he was informed that they could not sell it on Sunday.
The store owner directed us to the Texas border. At the border, on the Texas side, was a small one room convenience store with a sign you could read 5 miles away that said “Six Packs $1.99.”
Texas at the time had its own blue laws. You could not buy a bible on Sunday, but sales of beer was unrestricted – some things are too sacred.