Businesses Asking Bella Vista to Consider Sunday Alcohol Sales
By: Tyler Thomason
Updated: February 14, 2013
"A couple of the councilmen have been approached by businesses interested in Sunday sales."
Now that booze can be bought in Benton county, Bella Vista is entertaining the idea of imposing some if its own regulations when it comes to those sales.
"Whether the sales should be so late, whether the sales should be on Sunday or not, so those are the kinds of things that will be discussed," says mayor Frank Anderson.
State regulations already outline specific times alcohol can be sold, prohibiting Sunday sales -- unless authorized by a local jurisdiction.
"I'm pretty confident that those kinds of ordinances and things will change over time," Anderson says.
Especially with local businesses losing customers to out-of-state stores.
"Probably 100 feet, if it's that far, across the border you can buy on Sunday," Anderson says.
A manager at Casey's General Store in Bella Vista says he sees a lot of people trying to buy alcohol on Sundays because they're used to doing so in Missouri.
"They can buy seven days a week up there," says Sandy Creek, manager of Casey's General Store.
And with a newly wet county, customers who cross the border on a daily basis might get confused.
"They're getting used to it being in Benton county, but they're more used to Missouri so far," Creek says.
For now, Bella Vista plans to just start the conversation about possibly altering "when" alcohol can be purchased citywide.
"That's kind of what we're going to begin tonight," Anderson says, referring to Thursday's city council meeting.
"No Sunday sales right now."
