Why Do Some States Permit The Sale Of Alcohol On Sunday While Others Don’t?

2 Pages 476 Words

Why do some states permit the sale of alcohol on Sunday while others don’t?
It’s Superbowl Sunday and you’re a responsible adult over 21. Some friends are coming over and as you’re getting ready, you look into the fridge and realize that you have no beer. This situation could be a problem or it could not, depending what state you live in and how far you are from the border. Many states have different rules about when alcohol can be sold, by whom, and on what days. For example, if you live in Alaska you can buy beer any day of the week between 8am and 5 pm.
Not being able to purchase alcohol on Sunday is a common law in many states. This law was established during the prohibition era, when alcohol was banded for many reasons such as morality and belief in its cause of the general decay of American society. When the 21st amendment was passed each state was allowed to make their own laws concerning alcohol. Many states started out with strict laws especially on Sunday and have gradually changed these rules over time. The question is why do laws still vary so much from state to state.
A good case example is Salt Lake City Utah when they hosted the winter Olympics in 2002. Utah in general is known for it’s fairly conservative Mormon population especially in reference to alcohol laws. In conflict with this, is the fact that Anheuser-Busch is a major Olympic sponsor of the Olympics. After a lot of controversy, the alcohol rules were loosened for the games. The reason this happened is simple and applicable to many other regions in the United States. The economic decision can be seen by looking at legislator’s reservation price (X) for going through the hassle of changing the laws and the reservation/incentive price in economic gain for the city (Y); in this case Y was larger than X so the laws were changed. In some areas the majority of the population is opposed to loose alcohol laws and there is not much incentive for the ci...