Minnesota Legislature Poised To Allow First Sunday Liquor Sales In More Than 80 Years

Minnesota is considering lifting its ban on Sunday liquor sales and owners of liquor stores in Wisconsin border towns are watching.

Minnesota hasn’t allowed Sunday liquor sales since 1935. Now, the latest attempt to lift the ban is gaining momentum. But for Wisconsin liquor stores on the border the ban has been good for business. In Superior, two of the biggest liquor stores lay at the foot of bridges leading to Duluth, Minnesota. Marc Casper, who owns Keyport Liquor, said Minnesota business helps, but he doesn’t think lifting the ban will hurt his bottom line that much.

“The percentage of that that I would call ‘panic buying,’ when people run out and all of a sudden discover that they need something, that would come over is probably less than 5 percent of our business on a Sunday,” Casper said.

Hudson Liquor manager Ross Freeman agrees. He said even though his store does attract some panic buying on Sundays the potential loss of business won’t threaten the business.

“Being a border town with Minnesota being closed, it does give us extra business, but we still have our exclusives that Minnesota doesn’t have that they come over for anyway on Sunday,” Freeman said.

Freeman said those exclusives include New Glarus beer, which is only sold in Wisconsin. The bill to lift the Sunday liquor sales ban passed a committee by a vote of 15 to four and will now go before the full Minnesota Legislature.