20 counties OK Sun. retail liquor – not Ada, Canyon

By Steven Anderson

IDAHO BUSINESS REVIEW

Running out for a bottle of booze on Sunday?

Nearly half of Idaho’s 44 counties, including four of the five bordering Ada County, have approved Sunday retail liquor sales, according to the Idaho State Liquor Dispensary.

Gem, Boise and Elmore counties approved Sunday retail sales last year after the 2004 state law permitting them became effective last July 1. Owyhee County approved Sunday sales early this year.

Sunday liquor sales may be approved either by the county commission or by county voters in a referendum.

Rick Yzaguirre, chairman of the Ada County Commission, said the commission does not plan to take up the question on its own. Canyon County Commission Chairman Matt Beebe could not be reached for comment.

Counties that first approved Sunday sales include those with resort communities, such as Sun Valley-Ketchum (Blaine County), McCall and Cascade (Valley County), Coeur d’Alene (Kootenai County) and even Teton County in eastern Idaho – near Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Dyke Nally, ISLD superintendent, said Sunday retail selling of liquor – which is allowed in more than half the states of the U.S. – was approved in Idaho, on a county-option basis, in response to complaints from customers who found they could purchase beer and wine retail on Sundays, and liquor by the drink on Sunday, but not packaged liquor.

The complaints came especially from customers of the state’s 100 contract stores – private businesses that sell liquor under a contract with the state liquor control system.

“We have lots of contract liquor stores as members,” said Pam Eaton, president of the Idaho Retailers Association, which supported the 2004 legislation.

“They were presented with a problem where the portion of the store with liquor they’d have to completely close down on Sundays,” she said.

The ISLD operates 53 state liquor stores, including nine in Boise, two in Meridian, one in Eagle and one each in Nampa and Caldwell. Only three are open Sundays, but Nally said 12 more were approved for Sunday hours by the 2005 Legislature.

Of the 100 contract stores around the state, about 40 sell liquor on Sunday, Nally said.

Sunday liquor sales were inaugurated in Idaho last July 4 at the state store in McCall, followed by the state stores in Coeur d’Alene July 24 and Ketchum Sept. 5. In Emmett, Sunday sales began July 24 at the contract store in Emmett – Main Street Beverage – according to the ISLD.

“It seems a little odd to me that some of these counties have it before Ada County,” Nally said last week.

Yzaguirre indicated he and fellow Ada commissioners Judy Peavey-Derr and Fred Tilman would not oppose Sunday sales if someone were to obtain the requisite number of signatures to place the matter on the ballot.

“If the right group wanted to take the initiative to collect the signatures, it might be interesting to see what a vote of the people would do,” said Yzaguirre. “But we don’t want to go down that road.”

Yzaguirre, who formerly owned a contract store in Eagle, said that when the issue was brought up in years past “there was quite a lot of opposition from church groups.”

“My read is, it would be fairly difficult to get it passed in Ada County,” he said.

On Sundays, the ISLD stores that are open operate a reduced schedule in the afternoon. Nally, in an interview last week, said a typical state store needs to sell only about 30 bottles to meet operating expenses for a day’s operation. At an average of $12 a bottle, that would be $360 in receipts.

Contract stores get a cut of 12 percent of liquor sales up to the first $320,000 per year, and 4 percent above that, he said. Sunday sales at contract stores in Victor, in Teton County, and Garwood, in Kootenai County, are planned beginning in June.

Nally cited receipts at four stores during a recent four-week period, beginning April 24 and ending May 15, to show that Sunday sales have been significant:

&#149 The state store on Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene – one of three in the north Idaho city – was the leader in Sunday sales, having racked up $16,534 for 1,500 bottles during the four-week period. Coeur d’Alene is 13 miles from Washington State, where liquor is more expensive.

&#149 The state store in Ketchum ranked second, with $4,676 for 346 bottles – but nearly two-thirds of that total came from one order from a commercial buyer for 127 bottles worth $2,917.

Sales on the other three Sundays tallied ranged from $489 to $769.

&#149 At Main Street Beverage in Emmett – increasingly a bedroom community for Boise – Sunday liquor sales totaled $2,817 for 281 bottles, or about $700 per Sunday.

&#149 The state store in McCall sold about the same amount cash-wise, $2,769, but fewer bottles, 259 – indicating a somewhat more upscale market than Emmett.

Nally recently sent letters to county commissioners in the 24 Idaho counties that have not approved Sunday retail sales.

The letter, dated May 20, says in part that “Sunday sales have been successful in most of the counties” and have “helped the small contract stores by providing additional Sunday shopping in the stores.”

“Another advantage is that they have happier customers when they do not have to explain why they can sell beer and wine, but not distilled spirits on Sunday,” the letter says.

“Sunday is the second-largest shopping day in America now,” Nally noted in an interview at the ISLD headquarters and warehouse on Eisenman Road, near the Boise Factory Outlets mall.

Counties that have approved Sunday retail liquor sales are: Adams, Benewah, Bannock, Blaine, Boise, Camas, Clark, Custer, Elmore, Gem, Gooding, Jerome, Kootenai, Lewis, Lincoln, Owyhee, Power, Shoshone, Teton and Valley.

Counties that have not approved Sunday sales are: Ada, Bear Lake, Bingham, Bonner, Bonneville, Boundary, Butte, Canyon, Caribou, Cassia, Clearwater, Franklin, Fremont, Idaho, Jefferson, Latah, Lemhi, Madison, Minidoka, Nez Perce, Oneida, Payette, Twin Falls and Washington.

Commissioners in Freemont County, which borders on Yellowstone National Park, are considering Sunday sales, Nally said.