04/21/08 - It used to be you couldn't even work on Sunday. Nothing could be open on Sunday.

State won't repeal Sunday liquor sales ban

Connecticut Post, CT

HARTFORD — While New York state recently commemorated the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition by permanently adopting Sunday alcohol sales, Connecticut will keep its ban for the foreseeable future....

...Chris Kull, owner of WineWise on Putnam Avenue in Greenwich, said the mom-and-pop argument is a myth. "That is a lousy, lame excuse that has nothing to do with reality."

He and his partner are essentially a two-person operation and they're tired of seeing Connecticut cars in the parking lot of a Port Chester, N.Y., liquor store, just down the road from their wine store, on Sundays.

"The state loses, not only me," Kull said last week. "Unless it rains or snows, we figure we're losing $3,000, $4,000, easy on a Sunday because people have time to come taste wine, to discuss wine." ...

...Kull said that in a secular state, where people may or may not observe religious holidays, Connecticut lawmakers should wake up.

"It's a trade restriction," he said. "It's discriminatory, but the legislators continue to do what they want to do."

Another lingering blue law, which would also face massive opposition in the General Assembly, is the ban on Sunday hunting.

"Those laws have to go or we have to admit we're a non-secular state," Kull said. "We're still way behind the times."

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