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Post and Courier: My business can't grow because of outdated SC law

Looking at my liquor store, Micky Finn’s One Stop Party Shop — which has been a local South Carolina business since 1998, has three locations and won numerous awards including Retailer of the Year — you wouldn’t think we would have an issue with growth. But we consistently reach a ceiling we can’t break: Due to a Prohibition-era law in South Carolina, my business is banned from opening on Sundays.


Last year, Micky Finn’s opened its third location in Florence County off Interstate 95. Because this exit is frequented by beach-goers and tourists, Sundays are the busiest day of the week here — for my gas station neighbor who is allowed to open. Now let’s talk numbers. The gas station Micky Finn’s sits next to made $1.7 million one Sunday. If my small business got only 1% of my neighbor’s patrons, I could have made hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single day. Every week, I have to watch my business lose out.


I know I’m not the only one experiencing this.


The tourists passing through Florence County aren’t going to not buy liquor that day because my store was closed. Instead, they’re going to keep driving across state lines and give that business to one of our neighboring states.


This lost revenue is low hanging fruit for our state. Out-of-state travelers would be contributing plenty to our state and local governments through sales taxes every week. According to a recent Mountain View Economics study, lifting the Sunday sales ban could have a potential $2 million economic impact — that’s $20 million over the next decade — that we could be using to make positive changes in our local communities.


Every week, South Carolina loses out.


County referendums have been held for over 20 years that let voters decide if beer and wine can be sold on Sundays. But oddly, South Carolina still bans citizens from voting on whether liquor stores can open on Sundays in each county. It’s time for South Carolina to let business owners decide when we can open (and close) our stores. I urge state lawmakers to support legislation this year that lets the people vote on this issue.


 
 
 

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