Alcohol to your door? SC House panel OKs bill for permanent curbside, delivery sales
South Carolina lawmakers this year will look at whether to permanently allow alcohol to be delivered curbside to a car or directly to a customer’s home — two proposals business owners and customers have called for during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A House Judiciary panel passed both bills — H. 3575 and H. 3772 — Wednesday, sending the legislation to the full committee, where both are likely to face opposition from more conservative members, who have opposed alcohol-related bills in the past.
The curbside bill filed by state Rep. Russell Fry, R-Horry, would make the state’s current, temporary provisions for curbside alcohol sales permanent. State Sen. Scott Talley, R-Spartanburg, has filed similar legislation, though S. 0367 has not been cleared by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
At the start of the state’s COVID-19 outbreak, Gov. Henry McMaster loosened regulations on alcohol sales to help limit foot traffic inside of alcohol package stores and other businesses to lessen customers’ chances of contracting or spreading the potentially deadly disease. However, the governor’s order allowing for curbside pickup of beer and wine is only temporary, and powerful trade groups told lawmakers last month they support making the measure permanent.
“It’s simply just moving the cash register to the curb and not really changing anything differently from a customer going inside and purchasing the same exact item,” Rebecca Leach, head of the South Carolina Retail Association, told the same panel last month.
The proposal is modeled on similar laws passed in more than 30 other states that permanently allow curbside pick-up already.
The State Law Enforcement Division told The State it has not dealt with any major issues or concerns since temporary curbside pickup began last year. But the bill passed out Wednesday to allow alcohol delivered straight to customers’ doors could face steeper opposition on the House floor, concerning how to ensure only legal-aged South Carolinians get the alcohol.
Frank O’Neal, who supervises SLED’s alcohol and narcotics unit, said the agency is particularly concerned about minors’ access.
“Minors will not have the same public exposure as they would when trying to buy from a brick-and-mortar licensed dealer,” O’Neal testified at the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday, adding that “A $20 bill from a college student or a high school student that’s under 21 is just as likely to make that person (delivery driver) do the wrong thing.”
The bill, filed by state Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Richland, would allow South Carolinians to get same-day delivery of beer and wine from the same companies they potentially get grocery service from now, rather than having to drive their car to pick it up. Under the proposal, every delivery driver would have to be 21 years old or older and go through a background check. And the driver would have to check a customer’s ID to make sure they are 21 or older and ensure they are not intoxicated when the beer or wine is delivered.
“COVID has made it more pressing ” to pass this legislation, said Bernstein. “Every precaution (has been included in the bill) to prevent underage drinking.”
The measure has the backing from the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce — which said the move fits in with the chamber’s priority of “adapting to a new way of doing business” — and other major beer and wine retailers, including delivery service Shipt, which has launched a digital marketing campaign to urge passage of the bill.
Anne Junia, outside counsel for Shipt, testified by video Wednesday that the beer and wine could only be delivered by a licensed business, and the alcohol could not be delivered in what is known as a “dry area” that would include any counties or cities, for example, that do not allow Sunday sales.
Other states, including Georgia and North Carolina — which have had a delivery law on the books for years — have successfully been able to allow alcohol delivery without any major headaches, Junia told lawmakers.
“Families across South Carolina are already using home delivery services to get the groceries and goods they need — and we’ve heard consistently from customers that they want to get beer and wine delivered along with the rest of their order,” said Evangeline George, Shipt’s public affairs director, in a statement provided to The State.
Not every family is on board.
State Rep. Kirkman Finlay, R-Richland — a restaurant owner and father of three children between the ages of 17 and almost 21 — testified Wednesday against the legislation, saying he would prefer to see alcohol picked up at stores.
“It’s just a control point,” Finlay said.
A full House Judiciary Committee hearing on the legislation has not been scheduled, but committee chairman Chris Murphy, R-Dorchester, told The State he is in favor of both alcohol bills.
“Business owners are changing their model, and this pandemic has forced people to react differently,” Murphy said. “Looking at the alcohol legislation that we have, I thought that those bills, since we’re already really operating under those conditions, would be bills that we might be able to gain some traction.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 3:28 PM.
