I live in New York State and recently our governor changed the liquor purchase time from 8a-8p to 10a-10p. You can buy beer from convenience stores at 8am-3am on Sundays like every other day but liquor is different. My question is why? Why is there a cutoff time?
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Its generally a mix of morality policing and statistical crime prevention.
Those “no-sale” hours for liquor are when most drunk driving takes place. Drunk people generally like having more booze to drink. So by stopping sales you remove the incentive for drunks to drive to the store when they run out at 2 am. Or buying more on the way home when the bar closes.
The morality policing is just people wanting it to not be allowed because they don’t think its right and you shouldn’t be allowed to because of it.
Edit: The example of drunk driving was not meant as it only reduces drunk driving and nothing else, it was just a convenient example. Yes, it is also shown to reduce other crimes.
Mostly it is holdovers from religious laws.
I grew up in the state of georgia, which throughout most of my life did not allow alcohol sales on Sunday for religious reasons. They did eventually change that but they still do not allow alcohol sales before noon on sunday.
Is that a thing anywhere except heavily religious places like Malaysia and Thailand? I haven’t seen it anyplace else.
There will be a liquor store lobby pushing back on expansions of hours and such. They don’t see it as selling enough more to justify the extra costs.
And then pushing on the other side is usually the liquor producer lobby, who don’t care about the liquor stores’ costs and any increase in sales is good.
This usually balances out with slight consumer improvements from year to year.
The cutoff time for liquor sales often reflects historical regulations aimed at moderating alcohol consumption and promoting public safety. Different rules for beer and liquor arise from longstanding state laws and the varying social impacts of each type of alcohol.
Depends on where you live but most in the US are what’s left of old state ‘blue laws.’ Goes all the way back to the fight of prohibition and imposing stringent regulations through church influence. In the south you’re talking Baptist’s
It is an attempt to reduce impulse purchases of hard liquors. Bad impulse control is associated with addiction so it might help prevent someone from getting addicted to alcohol. Say for example that you want to reduce your alcohol consumption. So you only buy a couple of beers during the day. And you start drinking them after you got home from work at dinner. But when you are out of beer you feel the need to drink more and stronger alcohol. So you go to a store that sell liquor but it is already passed 8 PM so they refuse to sell it to you. You are essentially forced to sober up.
As for the morning cutoff time this is because a lot of people end up partying later then they planned and even into the morning. People are too drunk to make rational decisions like stopping drinking. So the only way these parties stop is because they run out of alcohol or because enough people pass out. But if someone can go buy more liquor in the early morning these parties can continue for a few hours more. It also prevents alcoholics from getting a drink before heading to work even though they had decided not to do so and therefore did not buy any alcohol beforehand.
Essentially if you limit the time people can make bad decisions then in theory fewer people will make that bad decision.
Religious origin (e.g. dry counties) public order and lobbying. Religion is self-explanatory.
Public order – alcohol sold late at night is probably going to be consumed right then. Drunk people cause problems. Licensed bars which are open later most places *theoretically* have better control over their patrons, cost more and won’t serve drunks.
Lobbying – bars like being the place to get later drinks. Wisconsin (drunkest state) is infamous for this. The liquor stores close sales at 9pm. Bars can be open until 2am.
I don’t know about the specific status on New York, that’s be better asked directly to your elected representatives or to other New Yorkers, however there’s multitude of reasons there are legal restrictions on the sale of alcohol at specific moments and times.
Usually, alcohol is banned at specific times when intoxicated people are known to be more dangerous, to themselves and others. For example, in the days leading to holidays that have people taking the road, alcohol can be restricted because it’d increase traffic accidents.
Some places also restrict the sale of alcohol during events in which intoxication could cause trouble, for example, around elections. You don’t want someone drunk near voting booths or discussing politics lest the alcohol remove their inhibitions and cause them to makes themselves do stupid things.
Some countries responsibilise alcohol sellers for the actions of drunk people, if they could have prevented them from being to drunk by abstaining from selling them alcohol. Think a client is bit too drunk and maybe acting like an arse but the bartender keeps pouring in the, it could lead to establishments creating rules about refusing to serve drunk people – also those people are bad for business.
And then there specific bans on alcohol at certain times. As some other people have mentioned, it could be due to religious restrictions particular to Americans, but in many countries it’s because those hours are peak hours for drunk people to cause problems. By restricting the sale of alcohol, you reduce the number of drunk people at those sensitive times, decreasing the number occurrences.
Into the 60’s Ohio had what was called the blue laws. Everything had to be closed on Sunday except for medical and other essential services. Even gas stations were closed. During the 19th century taverns could be open 24 – 7. But then laws were passes that they had to close from 2am to 5am so the old man had to quit drinking before all his paycheck was gone.
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