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Albany County Legislature requests State Liquor Authority change hours for wine and liquor sales

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The Albany County Legislature will ask the State Liquor Authority to modify hours for wine and liquor sales in the county during the holidays.

Wine and liquor stores in Albany County are currently allowed to be open between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. In a new bill, the Legislature is requesting the State Liquor Authority extend the hours to 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., November 15 to January 7 each year.

Majority Leader Dennis Feeney sponsored the legislation. The Democrat sees the change as a business-friendly measure that provides consumers with more flexibility and convenience.

"It gives everybody a couple extra hours at time of year, people are busy, to, you know, the liquor store, and then have to rush there to be there by 9 o'clock," Feeney said. "It's optional, obviously, for the liquor stores to do it. But I think there'll be quite a few of them that might consider it and, maybe some might only stay up until 10. You know, I mean, but, you know, it gives us some extra hours if they need to, and it gives the shoppers extra hours."

Craig Allen owns All Star Wine and Spirits in Latham Farms.

“Because Christmas this year is on a Monday, and six years ago when it was on a Monday that Sunday, (and I've been doing this for 33 years) was utter chaos," said Allen. "We literally had thousands of people like coming in the doors at noon. Now everybody kind of opened a little bit earlier, a lot of stores did just because it was people were lined up. And it wasn't safe. I mean, it was like Black Friday used to be you'd see on TV, you know going into Walmart. You know TVs for $10 people were yelling, arguing, pushing fighting. It was utter chaos in the store. We had people at the doors just so people would just walk out with stuff and just leave pushing a shopping cart of booze out because it was so crazy.”

Allen points out that for decades liquor stores in Lake George have stayed open until 11 p.m. and state law actually allows operations from 8 a.m. to midnight, but individual counties are allowed to determine their own opening and closing hours within that timeframe.

Democratic state Assemblymember John McDonald represents the 108th district.

"The regulations and the authority that the State Liquor Authority has in place work the majority of times. We leave extended hours over the years in different aspects. And there's been no negative consequence that I'm aware of,” McDonald said.

Allen says it’s a common sense issue.

“Being able to be open a little bit earlier or a little bit later helps so that if you want to open the door, and people are coming in at 9 a.m., you can actually let them in at quarter of nine," said Allen. "And if the same thing, during the holidays, if people are still shopping, which are really busy a little bit after 9, it makes sense to not have to kick everybody out like closing hour in a bar and say, ‘Hey, you gotta leave,’ let them linger on if it's 9:15 or 9:30. You know, you'd be able to stay open. And I think it just helps the public to be able to, you know, not be as rushed. A lot of people don't want to go in the high peak period. So shop. And it helps us you know, just to be able to not push people out the door. And you know, the staff doesn't mind if they're hanging around for another 15-20 minutes. There's some other things that I said we can do. You know, there might be some special tastings we want to do for at nine o'clock till 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock on holidays.”

Albany County Legislature Chair Andrew Joyce is also on board with the idea.

"Well this is something that we're adapting in Albany County in response to what's going on in other counties as well," Joyce said. "Yeah, it makes sense during the holiday season for individuals that are engaging in holiday cheer to have a bit more time to get to the stores."

The State Liquor Authority did not respond to a request for comment.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.