Liquor Store Owners on New Liquor Law

The new liquor store law will cost store owners 52 days off a year, plus they will lose the two-day weekends they had on holidays, like Memorial day, a back-to-back Sunday/Monday break. Open both days now.

So why not just close if it's not worth opening?

"I have to open or my customers will start going next door," said Paul Jose Paul, owner of , 16 Great Plain Road.

Gov. Dannel Malloy, who championed this law change, said in a press release when it passed the house, "Under the current law, we lose millions of dollars over the border every Sunday.  It’s a bad policy that inconveniences consumers and makes businesses less competitive.  But after tonight, there will be an additional 55 days where sales will be permissible.  It’s a good first step," Malloy said in his release.

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For the liquor store owners, it means changes.

"I have to mow the grass and do book keeping," said Paul, of . "I'll open on Sundays and I'll just open late on Mondays."

Paul laughed at the idea Connecticut was losing millions of dollars in sales every year to people driving across the state line in a panic to buy alcohol. He said people learned over the years to buy something extra before Sunday to cover the fact the store was closed.

Paul wonders if state government figures next year or the year after will show "millions of dollars," in extra liquor store sales after the law goes into effect. He said he doubts he'll sell much on Sundays.

At , 18 White St., Maurice Samaha, who has run the shop for 30 years, said there is one customer the law will help. He said the person who wants to buy a keg for a Sunday party used to have to buy it on Saturday, keep it cold at home somehow over night, and use it on Sunday.

Now that customer can buy it cold on Sunday and use it without having to worry about how to keep it cold overnight.

"Being open on Sundays might help with those Sunday events," Samaha said. "I don't know exactly what to think, because the details aren't out yet."

The Connecticut Package Store Association opposed this bill at first, but by the end, accepted it in its toned-down version. Initially it opposed the bill, saying that adding a seventh day of sales simply spreads six days of sales over seven days. It doesn't generate new tax revenue. The association finally gave the bill its blessing.

Samaha said a problem he sees with the law is staffing the store on Sunday or on a Monday holiday.

"My staff have young children. They want to be home on Sunday," Samaha said.

Samaha said he spent most of the last 30 Memorial Day holiday weekends in Boston with family and friends attending a Boston Red Sox game and eating out in Boston restaurants.

"A couple of days ago, I was saying to myself, I'm off for a holiday in three weeks," Samaha said, "and then I said, 'Or will I?'"