Thomas MacMillan Photo
Affrika X said the governor’s Sunday liquor sales plan would hurt alcoholism-plagued areas like his. Other shoppers at neighborhood stores wondered: What’s the big deal?
X (pictured) offered his perspective while picking up a box of sugar on Monday afternoon at the Country Market. If Gov. Dannel Malloy has his way, the corner store at Dixwell and Munson in Newhallville will be able to sell beer on Sundays.
The governor announced the proposal on Saturday. He said the plan would allow Connecticut to compete with surrounding states for dollars spent on liquor on Sundays.
Customers buying booze on Monday agreed with the governor. They said they’d like to buy it on Sundays as well.
Bad idea, said X.
Local package store owners also opposed the proposal, but for different reasons.
Snehal Dharani, who runs Rani’s Wine and Lquor on upper State Street, said “no way” when asked about Sunday liquor sales. He said the change would not bring in more revenue for the state or for individual shops, and it would eliminate the one day a week he has to see his family.
“I’m going to lose my family life,” he said. The change would also “damage society” by giving kids one more day to be able to hang around liquor shops like his, Dharani said.
Sunday liquor sales would help only big corporations and big chain stores, like supermarkets that already open on Sundays, Dharani said.
People won’t buy any more liquor than they buy already; they’ll just buy it over seven days a week rather than six, Dharani said. That means more work for him for the same amount of money.
Dharani acknowledged that the law wouldn’t require him to stay open on Sundays. But if all his competitors stay open, he’d have to as well, he said.
“That sounds like a personal problem,” said Greg Mack, who stopped by the shop to pick up a 12 pack of Miller Light bottles. Just because Dharani doesn’t want to work on Sundays, that’s no reason not change the law, Mack said.
“There’s money to be made” on Sundays, Mack said. “It’s a no-brainer.”
He said he’s been stuck before on Sundays, looking for a beer to go with his football game and finding all the stores closed. “It would be more convenient.”
Christine, who left Rani’s Monday with a couple of six-packs of cans in a black plastic bag, said she supports the governor’s plan to open package stores on Sunday. “Yes. Absolutely. They’re open in New York, why not in Connecticut?”
She echoed Gov. Malloy’s argument about lost sales to other states. She said when she lived in New Milford, she used to just drive 15 minutes over the border to New York to buy beer on Sundays.
Package stores are also losing sales to local bootleggers, she said. There’s a house in the Hill where you can get 40-ounce beers for $5 and pints of liquor for $10 or $15 on Sundays, she said.
At liquor stores in other neighborhoods on Monday, the divide between store owners and customers was similar.
Two Yale seniors picking up 40s at Broadway liquors said they support the change. Menawhile, Pan Yong (pictured), who runs Pan’s Package Store on State Street said most package stores are owner-operated by people who can’t afford to hire more staff to cover Sundays.
“We want one day for a break,” said Raj Patel (pictured), at Orchard Wine and Liquor in Dixwell. Sunday sales won’t bring in any more money, after you factor in the cost of extra staffing, he said.
Roop Lal spoke on the issue from behind the plexiglas barrier in his Newhallville liquor shop. “I don’t like this thing,” he said of the governor’s proposal. He said he’s gone up to Hartford in the past to speak out against previous similar proposals, and is prepared to do so again. He said he already works 11 hours a day, six days a week.
Bob, who runs the Country Market, had no sympathy. He said he already works seven days a week. His shop sells beers for six of those, he said, so why not sell on the seventh?
Bod said he wouldn’t make much on Sunday beer sales, but “every dollar helps.”
X, his customer, disagreed. “Six days are good enough,” he said.
People in Newhallville are already struggling with alcoholism, he said; they don’t need more access to booze. “It’s like perpetuating more of a problem.”
“Alcohol has always been a problem in our communities,” he said. Addiction “messes families up.”
People shouldn’t be talking about liquor sales on Sunday, X added; they should be talking about banning them on Saturday.
There are so many arguments, they say they cant afford to hire anyone? So does this mean they wont/dont sell enough to pay some local person 80 bucks a day to sit there and run a cash register? If that is true then they should probably find a new business.
As far as the day off for alcoholics... c'mon, a true alcoholic ALWAYS has a line on booze, my own grandfather(RIP) taught me that.
How is it that the store owners wont make money? I dont get it. Do they mean less money because they may have to hire someone?