Minnesota Grocery Stores Looking for license to Sell Stronger Beer

For years, we, as Minnesotans, have always known that the only place you could buy any sort of strong beer, or hard liquor/wine, would be at the actual liquor store. Anything that you would buy at a grocery store or a convenience store would be a less stong beer otherwise referred to as 3.2 beer.

Other states sell regular beer (strong) and liquor almost anywhere.  But Minnesota was behind on almost everything.  For instance, you also could not buy any alcohol on Sundays.  All the liquor stores were closed on Sundays.  That only changed recently.  That also meant that you would either have to plan ahead, or get the 3.2 variation.

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The Sunday law wasn't that big of a deal unless you had a holiday weekend such as Memorial Day or Labor Day and you didn't plan ahead enough and couldn't buy anything more on a Sunday.

Now, there is a bill being presented that would allow grocery stores to sell the stronger (normal) beer in their stores.  Although now that the liquor stores are open on Sundays, it isn't as big of a deal, but it could keep you from having to make a second stop

There are some people that are opposed to the new bill saying that it would hurt smaller businesses. From KARE 11:

"Essentially, this bill hurts the little guys and makes an unlevel playing field," said Jennifer Schoenzeit, owner of Zipps Liquor in Minneapolis. She says allowing alcohol everywhere isn't necessary and that 220 grocery and convenience stores already sell strong beer.  

There are some grocery stores now that do have access to sell stronger alcohol/beer, those that do have separate entrances and doors where those products are stored.

If this bill were to pass, there would only be one license per chain per city.  Also - if the bill passed, it would still be up to the city to administer the license.