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The Business Council of New York State, Inc. supports a change in the Alcohol and Beverage Control law (ABC) to allow sales of alcohol on Sundays prior to noon for on-site consumption; currently establishments are limited to serving their customers beginning at noon. Expanding service will increase the opportunities for restaurant and entertainment venues to offer their customers additional options and will also expand the options available to these patrons. While this bill S.2227 (Grisanti)/A.3735 (Benedetto) would allow sales to begin at 11AM on Sunday, we recommend allowing sales earlier to coincide with the law allowing beer to be sold for off-site consumption, which can begin at 8AM on Sundays.
What were once known as the Blue Laws dated back to the repeal of prohibition and were overly restrictive. The laws pertaining to sales on Sunday do not account for a change in the lifestyle of adults these days as they were last updated in 1995. There are a plethora of activities that take place on Sunday including brunch, sporting events, concerts, food festivals and other cultural events. At all these venues alcohol may be served but both vendors and consumers are hampered by burdensome alcohol sale laws. In 2006 New York State added a section to the Alcohol and Beverage Control Law to allow sales of beer to begin at 8AM on Sundays for off-site consumption and we suggest changing the laws for on-site consumption to give parity to those establishments.