Letter: Township Liquor Stores Should be Open Even Later

Several weeks ago the owner.

The issue is this: South Brunswick liquor stores must close at 5 p.m. on Sunday while neighboring communities allow their liquor stores to remain open until 10 p.m.

The result is that the South Brunswick business owners are losing a tremendous amount of business not to mention the inconvenience to local customers. The Council deferred the matter to the police chief who wisely conducted a survey of the neighboring communities to determine if the extended hours resulted in an increase of alcohol related problems in their communities.   

The answer was that there was no indication that the extended hours caused any problems.  There are five liquor stores in South Brunswick.  Based upon the loss of five hours of business operations (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.) times 52 weeks a year and the result is the loss of 1,300 hours of lost revenue. 

Based upon a 10 hour business workday the result is the equivalent of losing 130 days of revenue.  How many of us could survive if we lost 130 days out of our pay check? 

So even though the survey indicated no problem the Township Council has agreed to allow the liquor stores in our town to only remain open until 7 p.m. That decision makes absolutely no sense and shows a lack of business acumen.  

So now the business owners will still lose 780 hours of revenue or 78 days. That makes no sense.  Fewer sales mean less revenue which could mean the difference between profit and loss for these business owners. 

We need to help our business owners prosper. We need to allow our business owners to compete on an equal footing with their competition in neighboring communities. We need to help not hinder businesses within our community.

The more successful they are, the more successful our community will be. The South Brunswick liquor stores should be allowed to stay open on Sunday until 10 p.m.  It’s just common sense.

--Paul Saltin

Candidate South Brunswick Township Council

Monmouth Junction