Yesterday the Minnesota Senate voted down a bill that would have repealed a ban on Sunday liquor sales. From this Minnesota consumer, "Thanks for nothing." Who could this benefit? Oh, wait a minute, I think I know.

The strongest supporters of keeping the Sunday ban in place were bar owners (because people would be able to buy liquor from somebody other than them), and small liquor store operators (who say that staffing another day would be too expensive). Of course, liquor stores would be able to choose whether or not to be open on Sunday, but would lose too much business to those that chose to be open (???).

Now I'm sure there's probably more to it than that -- and I'm not a Senator in the loop, and not privy to all the details, but...

It sure feels like that I (Minnesota consumer) come out on the short end of this. Can I go without liquor for a day? Yep. Can I plan ahead and buy it another day? Yep. Is any of that the point? Nope.

Just doesn't seem like the Minnesota government needs to be protecting certain businesses from competition. I've always felt the best way to beat your competition is to be awesome.

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