Careatha Smith, of Bowling Green, pulls a drink from the refrigerator Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013 at Chuck Evans' Liquor Outlet in Bowling Green, Ky. This is the first Sunday where alcohol sales were allowed. (Joshua Lindsey/Daily News)

Grabbing a basket as she headed through Liquor Barn on Sunday evening, Mandy White of Bowling Green said the beginning of Sunday package liquor sales in the city is exciting but probably won’t significantly change her buying habits.

“It’ll be a convenience more than anything,” she said.

For instance, White said that now, if she’s having a party on a Sunday, there won’t be a need to buy all of her supplies the day before.

Last week, the Bowling Green City Commission approved the final reading of an ordinance allowing package liquor sales on Sunday, among other changes to the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control ordinance.

The ordinance allows package liquor stores to be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays and for malt beverage package sales to take place from 6 a.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday. Premises that have special Sunday retail drink licenses can sell alcoholic beverages beginning at 10 a.m. Sundays.

Joshua Hamilton of Athens, Ga., was visiting Bowling Green this week and stopped by Liquor Barn. He said he experienced a similar situation when Athens approved Sunday sales.

He said he can understand why alcohol traditionally wasn’t sold on Sunday because of the religious influences of the day, but that its new availability on Sunday hasn’t been a big deal for him.

“It hasn’t really affected me at all,” Hamilton said. “Personally, I don’t really care.”

Sandeep Jagarlamudi was working the counter at U&V Liquors on Louisville Road on Sunday evening. 

The store opened at noon Sunday because customers needed to get used to the store being open on Sunday. It closed at 8 p.m. because most customers would have work the next day, he said.

“People need some time to get to know that we are open Sunday,” he said.

Business on Sunday was slow early, but picked up starting about 4 p.m. and after that seemed comparable to a typical Friday evening,  Jagarlamudi said.

He said he expects Sunday sales to be a good thing for the store, although it will mean that Sunday won’t be a guaranteed day off for him, as it used to be.

“It’s always good for the boss to have business on Sundays,”  Jagarlamudi said.

Randal Cochran, general manager for Chuck’s Liquors, was at the Louisville Road store Sunday evening. He said business was fair on the first Sunday of package liquor sales, but not as good as a regular weekday.

He said he’s spoken with liquor store owners from other parts of the country where Sunday sales have been adopted, and they told him similar stories.

“Initially you get a little bump, but then it kind of levels out,” Cochran said.

Having Sunday liquor store hours doesn’t mean that new drinkers are coming to town, he said.

Cochran said many of the customers he spoke with Sunday weren’t expecting the store to be open because they thought it would take longer for the new ordinance to go into effect.

He said the issue is bigger than members of the City Commission seemed to think, and will create challenges for independent retailers when they coordinate with distributors and wholesalers.

The ordinance is skewed in favor of grocery stores and service stations that are already open on Sundays but will now be able to earn revenue from beer sales as well, Cochran said.

He said that despite challenges including increased overhead costs, he has to be open for business Sundays because otherwise he’ll lose business to others.

“I can’t afford to let a Sunday’s worth of business go to anybody else,” Cochran said.

Chuck’s Liquors will be adjusting hours Sunday as it becomes clear when customers want to shop, he said.

“If our customers want us to be open, we’ll be open,” Cochran said.

He said the result of having package sales in Bowling Green on Sundays is still unknown.

“At the end of the day, we don’t know what’s going to happen on Sundays,” Cochran said.

— Follow government beat writer Katie Brandenburg on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.