For the first time, Tennessee liquor stores were open and able to sell to customers this Fourth of July.
The change came as part of a state law passed in April giving liquors stores the green light to sell Sundays and some holidays. That said, liquor stores cannot sell on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.
Workers at some Memphis liquor stores said people have been calling constantly July 4th, to make sure their go-to place is open for business.
“We get calls maybe every 10 minutes people calling to see if we’re open or not,” said Patrick Goral who works at I-40 Liquors near Macon and Sycamore View Road.
Goral said typically after they take a call, a customer walks in about 10 to 15 minutes later.
“They are happy that we’re open. Of course, I got to work, but hey that helps the store, so it helps everybody,” Goral said laughing.
“I’ve been in the industry for 13 years now and there’s not a lot of firsts. Now this is the first Fourth of July I’ve ever worked,” said Ryan Gill, General Manager at Doc’s Wine and Spirits in East Memphis.
Industry workers and customers are still adjusting to the change.
“Most people came in last night thinking we were going to be closed so we did most of our sales last night, but today’s been actually pretty good for the first time,” said Goral.
However, it is a change- businesses are cashing in on.
“We’ll have our busy spells and our slow spells, but overall it’s been probably 50 percent up from a typical Wednesday,” said Gill.
