And didn't only those in Lakeside vote on the issue, as it was not city-wide?

The real reason for a dry lakeside (actually Lakeside/New London if you wanna get technical) may well have less to do with prohibition than discrimination. The temperance movement was driven by Protestants. That part of town was settled by English and Scottish Protestants and it was home to Duluth's "second tier" rich: your every day merchants, lawyers, physicians, etc., and also the poor Irish immigrant families whose women worked as domestics for those folks and the folks in the East End mansions. The same people who were anti-drink were also very anti-Irish, and keeping that area dry was one way to ensure "the help" didn't steal your liquor or show up drunk or hungover. Of course, no one is going to say that out loud.

So when Lakesiders say they voted to remain dry to "uphold tradition," they may well be upholding the tradition of religious and racial discrimination.

Danny: I didn't mean to imply that your wife or anyone else voted for those reasons, but that the anti-Irish sentiment that existed in the 1880s and beyond may have been in part the reason for the "dry" community way, way back in the day. I was trying to shine a little historic perspective on the issue, as nothing is ever as as simple as it is made out to be.

Besides, it seems to me Paul really wanted to address the state-wide blue laws, not the Lakeside liquor issue. Personally, I can think of no better way to spend a Sunday than to buy me a car and a case of beer of at least 3.3% alcohol (and no lower!), and do me some intoxicated motoring!

Our family often does grocery shopping for the week on Sundays, and not being able to buy beer or wine is really inconvenient.  It means I need to make a special trip during the (already busy) week.  I dislike the blue laws very much!

I've gone back and forth on this issue and I still don't know where I am regarding blue laws.

As a business owner, I would approach this one of two ways:  Another day to do business and make money - or - one guaranteed day off a week, to catch up on paperwork and dramatically lower overhead costs.

There's several questions that need to be addressed, such as:
- Would the additional day of sales outweigh having to pay someone to man a register or whatnot?
- Would that additional day siphon off sales from the rest of the week, (especially Saturday)?
- Is it worth more to me to have that one day off rather than have to worry about staffing, etc?

Overall, I'd say that this survey should be asked of car dealers and liquor store owners, not legislators.  My feeling is that the results would be surprising.

The Sunday sales restriction is ridiculous enough for liquor, but it's simply absurd for auto dealerships. The latter should be done away with ASAP.

One good point against these restrictions is that not everyone works a Mon-Fri job. 'Sunday' is not Sunday to many people. There are religious sects that hold the Sabbath to be on Saturday, plus atheists, and religions without the concept of a Sabbath, so any religious motivation for this is discriminatory. 

For people who DO work Mon-Fri, isn't it inconvenient to not be allowed to engage in commerce in these two arbitrarily chosen areas on one of your two free days a week?

The '10 at night' liquor restriction discriminates against people who work non-traditional schedules, also. 

But then, there's always Wisconsin.

Paul, Barrett - Yes, of course it would be optional, but try on your entrepreneur hats - if one liquor store or car lot will be open on Sundays, then they will all have to do the same in order to compete.

In Wyoming, there are drive-up windows at the liquor stores. I don't know if this was legal or not, but my cousin was drinking a beer while I was driving and insisted it was legal to do so in Wyoming. That is one wild place.

There is more to the liquor store being against selling beer and wine in grocery stores.  A liquor store  owner once told me that they make the majority of their profits from beer and wine. So if the grocery stores sell beer and wine, the existing liquor stores would not do so well.

I grew up in a state where beer and wine were sold in grocery stores, and liquor stores sold a lot besides liquor -- like snack foods, soda pop, even newspapers. They were more like the Little Stores are here. Seemed to work fine. There were a lot of liquor stores in my hometown, besides the grocery stores.

Needing a day off is a piss-poor argument for liquor store or car dealership hours of operation.