The last beer runs: Minnesotans no longer need to come to Wisconsin for Sunday sales

HUDSON - Sheri Dawson and Barry Heikkila wanted to mix a few cocktails with their favorite brand of tequila so they checked online to see which liquor stores were selling it near their St. Paul, Minn., home.

Then they realized it was Sunday. 

If they wanted to buy tequila, they would have to leave their home and travel across the border.

Which is how the Tucson, Ariz., natives ended up at Hudson Liquor over the lunch hour on Sunday, making their purchases and then getting back on Interstate 94 to cross the St. Croix River again.

“This is our last week of doing this,” Heikkila said as he paid for his tequila. “We were one of the ones from out of town who would forget that it was Sunday.” 

Sunday was the final booze-soaked hurrah for Wisconsin liquor stores and taverns along the Minnesota border. Starting July 2, for the first time since Minnesota became a state 159 years ago, packaged liquor will be sold legally on Sundays in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

The Minnesota Legislature voted overwhelmingly earlier this year to allow the sale of packaged liquor, beer and wine from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. The issue had come up annually for many years, but for a variety of reasons, it finally went through this year just in time for the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

While imbibers in Minnesota, for the most part, seem to be happy about the change, it’s a different story for the many liquor stores, taverns and gas stations on the Wisconsin border that sell spirits, wine and beer to thirsty folks in vehicles sporting Minnesota plates.

“Why would someone drive all the way over here if they can drive two blocks to their local liquor store?” asked Michael Murphy, owner of Pudge’s Bar in Hudson.

Murphy could read the tea leaves and realized that the Sunday liquor sales legislation was likely to go through this year, so he added on to his business, remodeled and started a restaurant a few months ago to make up for what he anticipates will be lost revenue from Minnesota drinkers staying closer to home.

“We have a lot of liquor stores in town. I personally don’t know if they’ll all survive. Sunday business is the biggest day of the week for many of them,” Murphy said. 

Hudson is the nearest Wisconsin community off the interstate from the Twin Cities, so it gets a lot of traffic, particularly on Sundays from customers who forget to stock up for parties or NFL-viewing gatherings the night before, from dehydrated boaters who know they can’t get beer on the Minnesota side and others who want alcohol for one reason or another.

Some think the Minnesota Legislature pushed the measure through this year because Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve — two big days for alcohol purchases — fall on Sundays, and because Minnesota is hosting the 2018 Super Bowl, also on a Sunday.

“It would have been nice if they’d waited a year,” said Chad Moe, owner of Hudson Liquor for the last decade. “We definitely get a lot of customers from Minnesota. It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out.”

Minnesota state Sen. Susan Kent, whose district is right across the border from Hudson, voted in favor of repealing the Sunday liquor sales ban.

“I came in hearing from my community that this is stupid, we need to do this and move on. They know sales dollars and tax revenue is leaving our community and our state because they see it all the time,” Kent said in a phone interview last week.

Kent said the Sunday sales ban was a remnant of Prohibition-era limitations on the sale, manufacture and consumption of liquor. While other states and communities long ago rescinded similar bans, Minnesota did not.

“There was just a lot of resistance historically. There are many liquor stores that don’t want to have to be open. They’re anticipating there will be competitive pressure. For some people it’s religious, for some it’s a day off and for some, there’s a real concern about the economics,” Kent said.

It might sound counterintuitive to Wisconsinites, where liquor has been sold every day of the week for much of the state’s history, that Minnesota’s independent liquor store owners, Teamsters and beer wholesalers, among other groups, lobbied against abolishing the Sunday ban. But their argument was that they didn’t want to add another day of deliveries and business to their work week and that opening on Sundays would hurt them financially after factoring in the cost of doing business with additional staff hours.

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The Legislature decided on the 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours limit on Sundays because it represents one work shift for the smaller mom and pop liquor stores, said Kent, who heard from her hairdresser in Hudson that some in the community “will frankly be happy not to have so many Minnesota people driving over on Sundays because of all the traffic.”

At Casanova Historic Liquors, the first liquor store in Hudson over the border, Benjamin Perkel doesn’t think the law change will hurt sales much. Taking a break from stocking beer in large coolers that fill one entire end of the store, Perkel said he anticipates some folks from Minnesota will still come in to buy their beverages Sunday mornings before liquor stores open in the neighboring state.

“People just want to drink. We’re just a mile from the border,” said Perkel. “Plus we still have Spotted Cow.”

And Spotted Cow, the popular New Glarus Brewing Co. ale that’s not sold in Minnesota, is a big draw. Josh and Denise Waxdahl Reinberg stopped at Casanova’s to pick up two six-packs of Spotted Cow and a four-pack of peach-flavored Dogfish Head Festina Pêche late Sunday morning. 

They were returning home to the Twin Cities after a wedding in Wisconsin.

“We were staying in Wisconsin and knowing we can’t buy on Sunday and can’t buy Spotted Cow in Minnesota, we decided to stop,” said Denise Waxdahl Reinberg.

Added her husband: “We’ve got plenty of good beers in Minnesota, but there are good ones here in Wisconsin, too.”

The Wisconsin Tavern League has kept tabs on the Minnesota Legislature’s previous attempts to repeal the Sunday sales ban, said Scott Stenger, noting that the impact on sales for establishments on the state border remains to be seen.

“We have members and businesses right on that border that benefited from the ridiculous law that they have over there. This issue has been an emotional issue in Minnesota for years and years,” said Stenger, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Tavern League. 

“It’s a weird dynamic. It’s not unusual to have limits on Sunday sales, but that tends to be more in the southern Bible Belt,” added Stenger. “It was a bit of an outlier especially here in the Midwest. When we got together with our friends from Minnesota, we would scratch our heads and say, ‘Why would you not want to be open?’ ” 

In Nelson, a short bridge crossing from Wabasha, Minn., the community of only 395 people features two liquor stores, three taverns and a gas station that sell packaged liquor. It also sports several fireworks sellers, which get a lot of business from Minnesota people who can’t buy certain types of fireworks in their home state. 

It doesn’t say this on the sign welcoming visitors, but in a way, Nelson has positioned itself as the place for many Minnesotans to buy their booze and bottle rockets, said Mandy Davis, manager of Nelson Discount Liquor on Main St. 

“I don’t know why a town this small has two liquor stores, three bars and one gas station that sells liquor, but it does,” said Davis. 

Davis doesn’t think the Sunday liquor sales repeal will affect business that much because Wisconsin’s 5.5% sales tax is lower than the 9% or higher charged in Minnesota. Also, Davis noted that the Spotted Cow fans from Minnesota will still stream across the border.

“I think people have just gotten used to the fact that they can’t get it in Minnesota,” she said, shortly after selling two 12-packs of Coors Light to Steve Pfeilsticker.

Pfeilsticker lives in neighboring Wabasha, Minn., and isn’t sure his beer-buying habits will change much once the repeal goes into effect July 2. He figures he might not want to wait until Minnesota liquor stores open at 11 a.m. on Sunday to buy his brew after getting out of church. Though he is happy to see his Minnesota government officials change the law.

“It’s about the only thing decent they’ve done this legislative session,” Pfeilsticker said.

Editor's note: An earlier posted version of this story incorrectly said Interstate 94 between Minnesota and Wisconsin crosses the Mississippi River. It crosses the St. Croix River.