state stores being open on Sundays
Not selling alcohol on Sunday is what's called a "blue law" and is targeted to say "You should be in church so stop trying to get drunk." And, yes, typically it restricts or prohibits sales from 2 AM to 7 AM or as late as Noon on Sundays though that can vary from state to state.
State mandated Christianity. I'm not sure how people haven't successfully sued those laws off the books yet.
I'm not sure how people haven't successfully sued those laws off the books yet.
The people in question would first have to disagree or be inconvenienced by the law. Even still, you have the rest of the week to buy it anyway, it's never more than an inconvenience at worst because it's not a necessity.
be inconvenienced by the law
If you're pagan and holding an early morning ritual and need wine/liquor/etc, you're inconvenienced.
If you're cooking and need wine/liquor/etc, you're inconvenienced.
If you're traveling and need to show up with a bottle of whiskey (house warming, for example), you're inconvenienced.
In any of these cases, you could have dropped what you had already purchased. Or it was stolen. Or the neighbor's teenage kid drank it. Or you bought the wrong kind. It's doesn't matter.
It's not a matter of being inconvenienced anyway - that's not how any of that works. It's a hardship. It's an embarrassment. It's an requirement. You literally have no other choices. You can't go to another store because it's regulated at the state level. It's a shame because adults are adults, period, and they don't need the state to tell them what they cannot do at a specific time "because church."
In Pennsylvania we have beer distributors and state (liquor) stores, Wine & Spirits. Some grocery and convenience stores are able to get beer licenses now, but they're not super common yet. At the beer distributors you can get beer and wine cooler type stuff, but liquor and wine you need to go to the state stores. There doesn't seem to be any particular limits for distributors with regards to alcohol percentages and I've never seen beer in a state store, though I have seen some wine cooler stuff. Most bars you can get a 6-pack from.
Only in the last few years are we now seeing some state stores being open on Sundays. Bars can only be open until 2am. The rules and regulations are long and convoluted, but still an interesting read. There's some weird stuff in there pertaining to how many ounces containers can be and how much can be sold.