[POLL] Trumbull Liquor Store Owners Waiting and Seeing

Trumbull's three liquor stores reported slow sales Sunday, as they expected.

But they say they don't know if business will pick up, or how they will handle the new Sunday hours yet. They also doubt sales will reach Gov. Dannel Malloy's estimate.

Regardless, they will all be open Sundays since the repeal of Connecticut's well-known Blue Laws starting May 20. 

"In the beginning it was a little bit slower," said Lucy Hennessy, manager of the Trumbull Liquor Center on White Plains Road.

During the discussions preceding the repeal, Hennessy said she thought the additional hours would be a wash because people would not stock up alcohol on Saturday. They would buy more Sunday, but overhead costs for the day might wipe that out.

She wasn't sure about changing hours on Sunday just yet. "That's up for discussion," she said.

The other two Trumbull stores, Bottom Line Liquors on Quality Street and TJ's Discount Wine & Liquors, said they're staying the course, despite losing Sunday time off.

With Sundays closed, "Mondays are normally busy," said Pinesh Patel, manger of Bottom Line Liquors. Open hours for customers are "not going to increase the consumption," he said.

He noted that Sunday is his worship day in Newington. Still, the store might reconfigure its Sunday hours to ease the burden. "It all depends on how it goes," he said.

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Opening Sunday was not the biggest concern, the manager said. The original bill would have allowed grocery stores to sell hard liquor.

The inconvenience for store workers does not outweigh the customer convenience, noted John Salluhi, part owner of TJ's. The family's owned it for 15 years.

"It wasn't busy but we've got to open for the customers," he said. "We're not happy to be open on Sunday but we've got to do it for the customers."

The new law also means holidays, including Memorial Day, during which stores will open regular hours because it falls on a Monday. That means 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for TJ's.

He will try to rotate Sunday workers and possibly reconfigure the hours as time goes by.