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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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.
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