TEXAS — One might assume that purveyors of packaged alcohol would be in favor of expanding sales to seven days a week, but it all depends on who you ask. 

Debbie Mylius loves getting to work directly with the public, interacting with customers. Mylius worked in the retail and service industry for years, working at Austin mainstays like Waterloo Records and Ego’s Bar. She credits her experiences there with tapping her own entrepreneurial spirit - at one point opening her own restaurant/music venue, and a hotel as well. 

A little more than six years ago, Mylius decided to try her hand at operating a liquor store, hoping to cash in on a better schedule. Now she owns two of them.

“I like the hours of closing at 9 o’clock, having Sundays off, instead of, you know, the grueling seven days a week that you’re usually putting in when you have a restaurant and a hotel,” said Mylius.

Mylius wants to keep it that way. She said it’s nice to have that built-in day off, not just for relaxation, but also to take care of after-hours business.

“If you need to do some repairs, or, you know, a storewide inventory,” Mylius said. 

Debbie Mylius appears at the liquor store she operates in this image from May 2021. (Spectrum News 1/Matthew Mershon)
Debbie Mylius appears at the liquor store she operates in this image from May 2021. (Spectrum News 1/Matthew Mershon)

It’s why Mylius says she’s opposed to two pieces of legislation circulating in Austin that aim to make Sunday liquor sales legal. HB 937 seeks to make seven-day liquor sales the law statewide. HB 2232, and its Senate companion bill, SB 1013, look to allow local jurisdictions to make the decision for themselves by way of a local ballot measure.

The Texas Package Store Association has come out against the legislation, saying in a statement that “the state's 1600 single-store liquor store owners and Texas-based liquor store chains are united in their opposition to Sunday sales, which would create a competitive necessity to open their stores on Sundays for little to no additional revenue.”

Joanna Salinas, co-founder of Still Austin Whiskey, finds herself on the opposite end of the spectrum. Her distillery and tap room are already allowed to be open on Sundays.

“You can enjoy a tasting of our product, you can take a tour of our facility and learn about what we make and how we make it. What you can’t do is, if you love the product, you can’t walk out with a bottle of it.”

Salinas is hopeful lawmakers say yes to Sunday sales, hopeful for a statewide passage. She said the state wouldn’t be forcing any store to stay open.

“Absolutely no one should open on Sundays if they don’t want to,” said Salinas. “But we also believe that this is Texas, where free enterprise is supposed to dominate, and if a company wants to be open on Sunday, has consumers who are interesting in purchasing a product on Sundays, we should be able to.” 

Mylius worries that while she’ll have the choice to stay closed on Sunday, it’ll likely harm business if she does.

“It’d be hard to not be open because if you’re closed and you’re having your regular customers that start going to another store, then you may lose that business,” she said. 

Those customers could possibly develop a report with another store, resulting in not just losing their Sunday business, but their business altogether.

Studies of other states with Sunday sales show a small increase in revenue for liquor stores that are open, but sales appear to be spread throughout the seven days of operation. Mylius fears that won’t be enough to cover the additional labor costs needed to stay open seven days a week.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade association pushing for the legalization of Sunday sales in Texas, said in a statement that “the overwhelming majority of states, including all those surrounding Texas, give adult consumers the option to purchase their favorite distilled spirits any day of the week they choose. It’s well past time Texas consumers had the freedom to choose when to make their spirits purchases."

Since 2002, 21 states have passed laws expanding Sunday liquor sales. States like Arkansas operate with a local option, allowing municipalities the ability to opt in for Sunday sales. 

All of the bills seeking to make Sunday liquor sales legal in Texas are still pending in committee, with roughly a week until the 2021 legislative session gavels out.

A portion of the liquor store owned by Debbie Mylius appears in this image from May 2021. (Spectrum News 1/Matthew Mershon)
A portion of the liquor store owned by Debbie Mylius appears in this image from May 2021. (Spectrum News 1/Matthew Mershon)