For other states it was just another Sunday.
Hoosiers commemorated an historic day by buying a cold one.
At 11:52 a.m., the first car pulls into the Village Bottle Shoppe on Sagamore Parkway in West Lafayette.
It’s eight minutes until the liquor stores opens its doors on a Sunday for the first time in state history.
Political analyst John Ketzenberger says the crowd assembling at this and other package stores is due to a cultural shift.
“It took an agreement basically with all the different retailers to say, sure we’ll open on Sunday, for this to happen,” Ketzenberger says. “Because I think if that agreement hadn’t occurred, we wouldn’t be talking about Sunday sales.”
As the clock struck noon, doors opened for the public.
Cheers to a great first day of #SundaySales buying @3floyds and picking up some @GunthorpFarms pork chops at @GoosetheMarket. pic.twitter.com/Vj9hgLYmz4
— Governor Eric Holcomb (@GovHolcomb) March 4, 2018
Village Bottle Shoppe manager Nathan Kuchler said he expected to see a trickle of customers throughout the day.
“With everyone knowing they have eight hours to shop today for spirits and beer and what not, I think they’ll just mosey on in as convenient for them,” Kuchler says.
Customers continued wandering in, including Jeanine Parsch, a lifelong Hoosier who says she’s here to celebrate.
“Well it’s a historic day, I mean who wouldn’t want to come out and buy themselves some cold beer? I mean it’s Sunday, the sun is shining, what more could you ask for?” Parsch says.
Indiana’s Sunday sales ban started out with puritanical worry about the vices of booze.
Over time, entrenched alcohol lobbies at the statehouse became convinced it wasn’t in their interest to change.
Bills had been filed for years to try to change the law, failing over and over due to political pressure and messy legislative language.
