A new state law legalized liquor sales at local ABC stores on Labor Day, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July, but that won’t be happening anytime soon in Cumberland County.
The Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Aug. 12 voted to keep its nine stores closed on those holidays.
But customers will soon get other benefits from the legislation, according to General Manager David Horne and county ABC Board Chairperson Terri Thomas:
- The new law allows the stores to offer gift cards, and the Cumberland ABC is in the process of arranging that.
- The new law permits the stores to sell a certain items that aren’t liquor—like drink muddlers, clothing, keychains, corkscrews and shopping bags—so long as they are packaged with a liquor product.
- The new law allows ABC stores to have ATMs. Some of the Cumberland County stores will get them.
- The new law lets the ABC stores sell to the public the barrels that whiskey, bourbon or other products were aged in. It’s common for the ABC store to get the empty barrel when it receives shipments of bourbon, Horne said. “Over the years, we’ve got quite a few sitting around.”
These changes are part of a wide range of new or revised alcohol statutes in an omnibus bill that Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law on July 8.
Why won’t the stores open on holidays?
The ABC Board members decided to keep the stores closed on Labor Day, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July “so we could give our employees that flexibility to be with their families during that time,” Thomas told CityView on Wednesday. “They don’t get a lot of days off, working in the stores.”
What about customers who might want to buy liquor on the holidays? Most customers are aware of the store hours and the days the stores are closed, Thomas said.
“We have our biggest sale days that Friday before, or Thursday before” the holiday, “depending on when it falls,” she said. The ABC stores may not see a benefit of opening on those holidays — and getting employees to staff the locations — when the stores get all that business in the days before the holidays, she said.
While the legislature voted to allow ABC stores to open on Labor Day, New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July, the stores must still remain closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. And the stores also must not open on Sundays, including holidays that happen to be on a Sunday.
Additionally, Cumberland County’s ABC stores are also closed on Martin Luther King Day, Easter Monday and Memorial Day.
What do customers think?
At the Westwood Shopping Center ABC Store on Thursday, Vicci Bonner of Fayetteville disagreed with the decision to keep the liquor stores closed on holidays.
“I don’t like that,” she said. “I work all the time, and sometimes I don’t have time” to go to the Cumberland County stores during their normal hours. The Cumberland stores are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Arleen Keleher of Fayetteville said the stores should not open on holidays. “To me that’s not necessary because overall, you get used to something, and people will go in there and will purchase their alcohol ahead of time to begin with,” she said.
By law, government-operated ABC stores have a near monopoly on bottled liquor sales in North Carolina. There are two main exceptions: Craft distilleries can sell to the general public (but there aren’t any licensed in Cumberland County, according to the state ABC permits database as of Thursday); and military-operated stores on military bases, including Fort Liberty, sell alcohol products to military personnel and their families.
The county ABC Board is appointed by the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners. The ABC Board owns and operates the county’s nine liquor stores.
After paying its expenses and taxes, the Cumberland ABC Board makes payments to the state and county for alcohol and substance abuse treatment, research and education, and payments to the state for law enforcement. After those payments, it gives its profits to the county government.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify how the Cumberland County ABC Board’s proceeds are used.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to the CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
