COLOMBIA – Buyers who have become accustomed to buying beer or wine with their orders on the sidewalk during the pandemic will lose that privilege without a new law.
At the moment, consumers buy beer and wine on the sidewalk, thanks to an emergency request from Governor Henry McMaster to help with online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic – and retailers and restaurants want to continue as soon as the COVID-19 emergence. finish.
A subcommittee of the Chamber of Deputies Judiciary heard on Wednesday advocates who want the move to become permanent and also support a separate measure that would allow counties to hold referendums to allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays.
Retailers have more customers now who are using the convenience of sidewalk delivery and want to meet their expectations, said Rebecca Leach, director of the SC Retailers Association.
“It’s just moving the cash register to the curb,” Leach told lawmakers.
The pandemic served as a pilot program to allow the purchase of beer and wine on the sidewalk, and consumers like that, she said.
These sales are legal in more than 30 states, including the entire Southeast except Alabama, which is also debating the idea, said Leach.
Justin Coleman, owner of Monarch Wine Merchants in downtown Charleston, applauds the effort to permanently legalize the delivery of beer and wine on the sidewalk. Coleman said the option was a lifeline for his small business.
“Our goal is to make people feel as comfortable as possible when shopping with us, and the sidewalk collection has added another layer of comfort for our customers,” he told Post and Courier.
At the Statehouse hearing on Wednesday, several speakers argued that alcoholic beverages can also be sold in stores that offer them. Sidewalk alcohol sales are not included in the bill.
Consumers who go to a liquor store don’t understand why they can buy beer and wine for collection on the sidewalk, but not other forms of alcohol, said Lock Reddic, owner of Green’s liquor store chain in Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Greenville and Atlanta.
“It causes a lot of confusion, a lot of frustration,” Reddic told lawmakers.
The Green’s Atlanta location has sold all of its alcoholic products on the sidewalk since the pandemic began, Reddic said, and has been popular with customers and helpful in reducing in-store traffic during the pandemic.
Laura Hudson, one of the co-founders of Mothers Against Drunk Driving SC, argued that sidewalk sales deserve additional precautions in addition to in-store service.
Hudson said that only employees 21 and older with additional training to spot smaller buyers and those who are drunk should make those sales.
Under current rules, any sales clerk 18 or older can complete sales.
Other restrictions Hudson called for include day-only sales and no sidewalk cold drinks.
The other bill discussed on Wednesday would allow counties or cities to launch a binding referendum on Sunday alcohol sales.
Ending Sunday’s restriction on sales would end an unnecessary restriction on local businesses, the project’s main sponsor, minority leader in the House, Todd Rutherford, told the subcommittee.
“I don’t believe a small business owner should be told when to open,” said Democrat Columbia.
It doesn’t make sense that bars and restaurants can sell drinks on Sundays, but sales for domestic consumption are illegal, he said: “I don’t know how badly we are killing.”
Tourists are confused that they are unable to buy alcoholic beverages on Sundays, and their move would allow counties with large hospitality industries to vote to change that, he said.
No vote was taken on the accounts. A vote may come at the next meeting of the subcommittee, said State Representative Micah Caskey, a West Columbia Republican who heads the House panel that reviews the projects on Wednesday.
Hanna Raskin contributed to this report.