No alcohol sales on Sunday

My favourite scenario to cite is driving a long ways to visit relatives and wanting to pick up a bottle of wine on the way out. If you won't arrive until mid-afternoon and don't want to get there empty handed, you might be in the store at 9am picking out a bottle without being an alcoholic. Any liquor could be in the same sort of situation, though wine is the.... classiest I guess.

Shopping as a whole only opened up on Sundays a few years ago here, the argument that was made by some businesses was that they opposed it because the additional day of being open wouldn't really result in any more sales, as it would just lower the sales through the rest of the week, that more or less their market is a zero sum game.

Now, if competitors were allowed to open, then they would take those sales that were moved to Sunday, so they'd be forced to open against their will.

That was the argument, at least. I think it ignores what the additional wages would do for the economy. But fine. We'll close down shops for a day. I say close 'em on Tuesdays.

I could never quite get the hang of Tuesdays.

What additional wages? They'd just have to thin the employees out more.

As much as I find drinking to be a big vice and all that other stuff, if a business wants to sell a product that is legal to sell, they shouldn't be restricted as to date or time. They want to be open 24/7, so be it.

Having a restriction, if it was me trying to buy, would lead me to simply buy more on Saturday. Or maybe buying second-hand from my buddy who hoards up on the stuff, which turns him into an under-the-counter alcohol store. Is that guy paying sales tax revenue to the state for reselling the stuff? I think not - might be even making a bit of side money by doing so. Plus, the stors that are allowed to stay open have a monopoly for that period of time. I bet they'd get really vocal about it if the law was rescinded, right? Loss of revenue for them, and I'd hazard a guess that whoever in that locality that upholds that law might be getting campaign contributions from the stores that are allowed to stay open.

It just smacks of "we can't relly prohibit you via prohibition anymore, but we'll make it inconvienent." Or something.

To be fair, extended opening hours of off-licences and pubs are linked to increases in alcohol-related anti-social or even criminal behaviour. There was a bit of a furore over here because of that as in England, some pubs were given the right to stay open 24/7. Can't recall to what extent the fears were borne out in practice, though not all that many pubs went for the licences (which are ridiculously expensive and of course increase fixed costs of things like lighting and wages).

So it's not purely a freedom thing, there are potential implications for communities if drunks can stumble around screaming at any hour they like (I say this as someone who lives on a main road across from a couple of student halls and one of the loudest kareoke bars in the country - literally a quarter of a mile away, you can hear the place for some reason)