2012 Sunday Sales push

The Alliance of Responsible Alcohol Retailers is trying for Sunday sales again this year. short article includes "According to an ARAR petition, more than 50,000 Hoosiers support the measure." That's from two years back of course. It also adds "The group also wants Indiana-brewed cold beer to be sold at convenience, drug and grocery stores." This seems to be this year's carrot.

Mini-editorial. There's no way, no way at all, Indiana breweries could fill the cold shelves at convenience, drug and grocery stores. Indiana's total beer annual output of about 50,000 bbls (1.4 million six packs) wouldn't keep the shelves stocked at just the Speedway stations. Never mind the Krogers, Marsh, 7/11, CVS, and more. (Over 4 million barrels are sold in Indiana annually according to the Beer Institute.)

Just sayin there's some smoke being blown somewhere. Maybe this is step one, year one in an approach to get the "locally brewed" foot in the door and then later argue to expand due to lack of product or in fairness to other states.

Note that the "Commerce Clause" doesn't apply. The 21st Amendment gives states complete control of their alcohol regs. After Prohibition, Indiana taxed beer from other states higher than local beer with distributor deposits and license quotas. Michigan instituted an outright ban on Indiana beer (upheld by the Supreme Court) which eventually caused Indiana to treat everyone equally.

On a side note - I bet we'll see a one-time relief for Sunday sales instituted before the end of January even if it is just for Super Bowl Sunday and just for Marion County. Any takers? They did it in Texas. Sunday on-site sales were allowed because the IMS wanted to move the Indy 500 to Sunday from Memorial Day Monday.

The ARAR says "Now, we are just asking for competition when it comes to Indiana brewed beer, which accounts for roughly two percent of statewide sales. The time to change is now.  Let liquor stores keep 98 percent of their cold beer market and allow for real competition for two percent of sales."

Gosh it would be nice if Indiana breweries had 2% of the market. Wow. For every pallet of BudMillerCoors on a grocery store floor there would be a case of Hoosier beer instead of three or four SKUs languishing toward the end of the 100-SKU craft beer section.

Also see the press release from the Liquor Store lobby.

Do we need Sunday sales? Do we need cold sales in gas stations? Do we need to protect local industry? We'll be hearing these questions a lot for the next 2 months.