Sunday liquor sales to start at 8 a.m.
By Jenette Sturges jsturges@stmedianetwork.com September 22, 2010 10:34AM
Updated: September 24, 2012 6:25AM
The Naperville City Council voted 8 to 1 to approve expanding packaged liquor sales to 8 a.m. on Sundays, in an upset deserving of a sports analogy.
After all, it will mean no longer missing kickoff for a beer run.
But members of the City Council cited reasons other than football for allowing grocery and liquor stores to begin selling at 8 a.m. Sundays.
“When we went and researched through Jewel, we found that many of our residents were going outside the city to make purchases,” said Mayor and Liquor Commissioner A. George Pradel. “There are a lot of tax dollars going to other communities.”
The data provided by Jewel-Osco stores was compiled from shoppers swiping their Jewel Preferred Cards.
The original proposal before the council was to hold the first reading of an ordinance changing the hour sales could begin to 10 a.m., a time based on the average hour for Sunday liquor sales in other communities, but was substituted for 8 a.m. at the dais Tuesday night.
“What’s so magical about 10?” said Councilman James Boyajian. “If Naperville were at 8, pretty soon Lisle would be at 8. Why wouldn’t we go to 8? I just don’t know why we wouldn’t try to give ourselves a competitive edge.”
Councilman Richard Furstenau was the lone dissenter, arguing that in some cases a lack of stores at the south edge of Naperville drove customers to Bolingbrook stores, and that the numbers presented to the council from Jewel included food as well as liquor sales.
“We’ve had it at noon for a hundred years, and that’s where it ought to stay,” Furstenau said.
Other members of the council argued that the pressure to change the law was the effect of the popularity of one-stop shopping at larger retailers, and stressed shopping locally to keep tax dollars in the city.
“It’s real disappointing to find out our residents are going somewhere else,” said Councilman Paul Hinterlong. “Stay home. Keep the sales tax dollars here in Naperville.”
Pradel expressed not being entirely convinced when the subject came before the liquor commission in July, but “wholeheartedly requested” support from the council for earlier Sunday hours at the Tuesday night meeting.
“I was one of the ones who held out for so long,” said Pradel. “But looking at all those statistics, I think we ought to have people spending money in Naperville and not other areas.”
The new ordinance goes into effect 30 days from Tuesday’s meeting. Liquor sales on Oct. 24 will begin at 8 a.m.
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