Indiana C-stores Alcohol Sales Ban

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- A resolution aimed at banning alcohol sales at some local convenient stores will be introduced to Evansville's City Council at Monday's meeting, according to the Evansville Courier & Press.

The resolution, which will be introduced by council President Steve Bagbey, would not be binding. It only would encourage state and local alcohol boards to ban the sale of alcohol in convenience stores and gas stations, according to the news source.

"I don't have a bone against anybody having a drink," Bagbey said. "(But) I am concerned, as a school safety specialist, that the Indiana Legislature and Alcoholic Beverage Commission are content to grant convenience stores the ability to sell liquor without the proper education and controls that liquor stores have."

Specifically, Bagbey said, he is concerned with the difficulty in enforcing drinking age laws in those stores.
To enter a liquor store, all patrons must prove they are at least 21 years old. The same does not hold true for other places where alcohol is sold. Nor, Bagbey said, do the employees behind the counter have to be 21 years old, as they do in liquor stores, according to the report.

So where enforcing the drinking laws at a liquor store simply means busting anyone coming in or out who is underage, doing the same at a convenience store is more of a challenge, Excise Officer Ronald McDonald told the news source.

Officers cannot search a customer's bags once they have exited the store, meaning they have to see the actual purchase.

"(And) anybody can go into a grocery store or a convenience store," McDonald said. "Without us physically being in that store at that exact time, we can't catch that youth (buying alcohol)."

Several local liquor storeowners are unhappy with the proposed ban, not because of the competition, they said, but because of the enforcement problem and the extra training their employees must endure that convenience store employees do not.

Cindy Brackett of Shamrock Liquor, along with several other storeowners, complained about the double standard in licensing and said the Legislature should do something about it.

Since the 2003 bill's withdrawal, no new bill has come before the Legislature.

"(But) we're all starting to band together to fight this," Brackett said. "We hope to get it to the Legislature. We'll just have to see where it goes after City Council meets."
Bagbey said he isn't even sure what will happen to the resolution when it goes before the City Council.

The council president has not talked to other members of the body about the issue, according to the news source.
He cited his concern that the Legislature is headed the other way -- toward allowing convenience stores and gas stations to sell more alcohol, instead of banning it -- as the reason he drafted his nonbinding resolution.

At the moment, such stores are allowed to sell wine and warm beer; liquor and cold beer are reserved for liquor stores.

"This is something I feel very passionate about," he said. "(And) if (the council) really is concerned about substance abuse, this is an opportunity to say, 'Hey, we don't think this is a good idea; we like the way things are set up now, with the training needed at liquor stores.'"