Where To Buy Liquor In Texas
Aside from grocery or convenience stores, package stores sell beer and wine, not liquor. If a package store only sells wine, they have the same operating hours as a liquor store. If they sell beer and wine but nothing else, then special restrictions apply to the sales of wine with an alcohol content over 17%.
where to buy liquor in texas
Alcohol sales hours are different if you're being served for consumption on-premises, as you would at a bar or restaurant. For on-premises consumption, the rules are the same whether you're buying beer, wine, liquor, or mixed drinks.
Texas liquor laws are mostly complicated because they've been around long, are regulated at multiple levels, and deal with large, complex industries. The state passed its first "Blue Laws" (alcohol bans) in 1935, two years after the end of federal Prohibition. Some counties or municipalities have separate alcohol laws enforced on top of the state laws.
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Voter approval is required (either at the county, county precinct, or city level) to approve sales. Separate votes are required for 1) "on premise" (sales at a restaurant or bar for consumption at that location) beer and wine sales, 2) "off premise" (sales for consumption elsewhere, such as home) beer and wine sales, 3) on premise liquor sales, and 4) off premise liquor sales.
Liquor sales are more stringently regulated. Liquor sales are prohibited 1) on Sundays, 2) on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day (and when Christmas and New Year's fall on a Sunday, the prohibition is carried over to the following Monday), and 3) before 10AM and after 9PM on any other day.[5] Furthermore, liquor can only be sold in "package stores", which must be closed whenever liquor sales are prohibited (even for sales of otherwise allowable products),[6] and which further must be physically separated from any other business.[7] Moreover, no owner can own more than 250 package stores,[8] and no publicly traded company can own such a store.[9]
Yes, but only upon approval of the TABC after the holder submits an application requesting such a change. A license to sell beer may only be transferred to a location within the county in which it was originally issued. A permit to sell liquor may be transferred to another location in Texas.
A wine-only package (liquor) store that holds a beer license can not sell wine containing more than 17% alcohol by volume on Sunday. If the wine-only package store doe not hold a beer license, it must operate the same hours as a liquor store, which means it is closed on Sunday.
"A blue law is a restriction on the sale of some items. Often it's a restriction on the sale of liquor, and those laws can be enforced by a state or by a city or by the county or by an level of government," explained Dale Carpenter, constitutional law professor at SMU Dedman School of Law.
In the state of Texas, liquor stores must remain closed on Sundays and some holidays, including New Year's Day and Christmas Day. When it comes to beer and wine, you can still purchase it on Sundays, just not before noon.
"In my eyes, every day should be a family day. So if liquor is involved, why can't it still be a family day?" questioned Gupta. "I would have a very soft corner when someone would say that we need church time on Sundays. Yes, that could be a debating factor you have, but again, then the argument would be when you already have a portion of alcohol getting sold seven days, why would the liquor stores not be open?"
"Most of the liquor stores take a lot of safety measures. We thoroughly check ID's. There shouldn't be any safety concerns, whether you're selling alcohol on a Sunday or a Monday or a Saturday," he said.
According to a 2016 Ken Herman column in the American-Statesman, "From 1961 through 1985, the Texas Blue Law banned the sale of an odd collection of 42 items (hammers and screwdrivers could be sold, but not nails or screws) on both days of the weekend. It forced many stores to close on Sundays and others to rope off sections with stuff they couldn't sell. The 1985 Legislature killed the Blue Law, save for the portion covering package liquor stores and auto dealers, effectively keeping them closed on Sundays."
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This expansion applies to grocery stores and convenience stores, where beer and wine can now be sold from 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday.
Texas Alcoholic Beverage code allows only privately owned retailers to sell liquor in the state. Publicly traded retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Walgreens and Kroger are excluded from doing so in Texas.
A Walmart spokeswoman said the company plans to file a lawsuit Tuesday in state district court in Austin challenging as unconstitutional the section of Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code that prohibits publicly traded retailers from owning package liquor stores. Walmart contends Texas law discriminates against it and other companies such as Kroger, Costco and Walgreens in favor of family-owned liquor stores.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Pitman, saying Walmart had to make a stronger discrimination case. Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, but a year earlier the high court invalidated a Tennessee law that required residency to run a liquor store.
Article XVI, Section 20 of the Texas Constitution; Chapter 501, Texas Election Code; and Chapter 251, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code are specific to local option liquor elections. For historical and public policy reasons, the procedures for these elections differ in many respects from the procedures applied to other voter-initiated elections. You should not extrapolate or apply the procedures explained here to any other type of petition-driven election.
Although Texas laws controlling the sale of liquor date back to the founding of the Republic following independence from Mexico, local option law in its current form has been largely unchanged since Article XVI, Section 20 of the Constitution was adopted in 1891. The blanket prohibition of all alcohol sales under state (and then federal) law, (along with the state prohibition on the manufacture of alcohol) merely interrupted the application of the older local option liquor law between February 1918 and August 1935.
Counties, cities, and justice of the peace precincts are wet except where the voters have prohibited the sale of liquor. However, at one time or another, the voters in almost every county in the state have adopted at least some local restriction on alcohol sales. Even in the absence of local option elections, some jurisdictions and parts of jurisdictions are dry as the result of pre-1891 legislative action in the form of special and local prohibitory acts that were ratified and preserved in effect when Article XVI 20 of the state constitution was adopted.
No. Sections 251.72 and 251.80 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code were amended in 2013 to authorize a new local option liquor election to be held using the current justice precinct boundaries. See I. C. above for full explanation.
Yes. Sections 251.72 and 251.80 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code were amended in 2013 to authorize a new local option liquor election to be held using the current justice precinct boundaries. See I. C. above for full explanation.
A political subdivision must have been in existence at least 18 months before holding a local option election to legalize or prohibit the sale of liquor. The political subdivision must include substantially all the area encompassed by the subdivision at time of its creation and may include any other area subsequently legally annexed by or added to the political subdivision.
Section 501.1035 of the Code provides that any territory that is annexed by a city subsequent to the issuance of the petition but prior to the local option liquor election is included in that election and affected by the election outcome. However, the number of signatures needed on the petition is increased to reflect the additional population of the area pending annexation.
Section 501.032 provides that the number of required signatures depends on the category of local option liquor election the petitioners are seeking. The number of signatures required to be on a petition is equal to or greater than:
The notice requirements for local option liquor elections are identical to the notice requirements for most other elections; notice is provided to the public in accordance with Section 4.003, Texas Election Code.
There are two types of local option liquor elections: prohibition and legalization. The legal effect of an election may vary depending on whether it was held for the purpose of legalization or prohibition. The purpose of the election, either for prohibition or legalization, must be stated in the petition and the order. It is not, however, stated on the ballot.
As is the case in most states, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected alcohol sales in Texas and prompted officials to make changes to liquor laws to allow for additional alcohol delivery methods. In the wake of mandatory business closures and event cancelations, there has been a significant decline in on-premise alcohol consumption across the state of Texas. Hopefully, allowing to-go sales of mixed drinks will help businesses stay afloat while also keeping customers safe. 041b061a72