New Yorkers can now buy booze on Sunday mornings
Oct. 16, 2023, 2:03 p.m.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a series of bills into law, including one allowing liquor stores to open earlier on Sundays.
Liquor stores in New York will be able to open up as early as 10 a.m. on Sunday thanks to a bill Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law over the weekend, while retailers will be able to sell beer and cider in the overnight hours.
Under the new state law effective immediately, liquor and wine stores will be permitted to be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. Previously, state law didn’t allow liquor stores to open until noon on Sunday and forced them to close by 9 p.m.
Grocery stores and other retailers — unless prohibited by local law, which is not the case in New York City — will be allowed to sell beer, mead, braggot and cider from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Sundays, which had previously been prohibited under state law.
The newly signed bills are New York’s latest effort to slowly chip away at its post-Prohibition era “blue laws,” which have restricted alcohol sales on Sundays for nearly a century in the state.
In 2016, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law allowing restaurants and bars to serve alcohol beginning at 10 a.m. on Sundays — a measure that became known as the “Brunch Bill.”
Hochul signed the latest batch of bills into law on Saturday.
“I'm proud to sign this legislation that will modernize the laws governing the sales of alcoholic beverages in New York,” she said in a statement.
Many of New York state’s alcohol laws date back to the 1930s, the end of the Prohibition Era. The state has gone through various efforts to overhaul them over the decades, with little luck.
Most recently, the state formed a 16-member commission dedicated to studying the state’s alcohol laws and proposing ways to modernize them. The panel — which included state finance and tax experts and representatives of liquor store and restaurant owners, among others — advanced 18 proposals in a report earlier this year.
The state Legislature balked at advancing the full slate of proposals before lawmakers ended their annual session in June, which would have allowed liquor store owners to own more than one location, among other things. Instead, state lawmakers and the governor opted for a more piecemeal approach — taking up a handful of tweaks, including the liquor store hours bill Hochul signed into law over the weekend.
Kent Sopris, president of the NYS Association of Convenience Stores, said the law ending the prohibition on retail beer sales in the Sunday early morning hours was “definitely something that needed to be updated.”
“It made no sense to have this blanket ban on sales on Sunday mornings, considering the fact that we live in a very consumer-driven society, but also folks work different hours. People's lives are not nine to five, Monday through Friday.”
William Crowley, spokesperson for the State Liquor Authority, said the authority is reviewing a slate of local laws that are in place and how they will be affected by the new state law.
When it comes to liquor stores, Crowley said the SLA’s initial review of local laws shows none of them are more restrictive than the state’s new 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. law on Sundays, meaning it will apply statewide.
When it comes to the 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. retail sale ban, Crowley said the SLA’s review is ongoing.
Correction: A previous version of this story inaccurately listed what retailers will be able to sell in the overnight hours. They will be permitted to sell beer and cider.