The legislative session finally came to its final conclusion on Saturday, June 13, 2015.

I look over this year's session and realized how our liquor laws have been changing.

MMBA Legislative Day, February 9, was the first time I had gone to the capital to meet with my representatives

As I found out, one representative was on my side and one was not when it came to Sunday Sales.

The vote this year on this subject was closer than it has been in past years.

The senate vote was 28-35 on April 16, 2015 and the house vote was 57-75 on April 28, 2015.

I also joined in the fight with the SMART campaign as many of us have.

It's nice to know we are not alone in this campaign every year.

I was glad I went to the capitol this year.

It seems I am educating my customers, representatives, council members and city staff why we don't want Sunday Sales.

In fact, I had a customer come in last weekend asking me " So I understand that Minneapolis approved Sunday Sales. How come we have not yet approved it?"

I explained the City of Minneapolis approved Sunday growler sales, not off sale liquor sales.

He then asked why liquor stores are not open on Sundays and said the media sure hypes it up every year.

After I explained why Sunday Sales doesn't make sense, he understood and said he had been trying to figure it out every year.

Now that I explained it to him, it made sense.

I love to refer to the states that approved Sunday sales and did not gain extra revenue for being open one extra day of the week.

In fact I kept an article from an MMBA event two years ago when Connecticut passed legislation on May 20th 2012.

Area liquor store owners said the law has not resulted in increased profits and has actually hurt their business.   

As we all know, it takes people to run the store another day and power to light up the building.

Restructuring your city's payroll is no easy task.

In fact, for many of us we may be the only full time person working there.

Those who say we are losing business to other states on Sundays are only looking at one day "Sunday."

How about looking at the surrounding states alcohol tax rates and realize that we are higher in some areas and lower in others.

If you are a consumer living on a border town, and say your beer is cheaper in your bordering state, you will buy it there.

It doesn't matter what day of the week it is.

Tax rates can and will sway where you buy your product, especially if you are that close to the border.

I find it entertaining to hear representatives saying "Look at all this revenue we are losing to other surrounding states", when we are not losing revenue by being closed on Sunday.

We see proof we won't gain and we will lose in the long run.

In conclusion I would ask all of you next year to join us at the capitol on Legislative Day!

Help educate your representatives and tell them why the current law makes sense for Minnesota and why you want to keep a smart and balanced system in Minnesota when it comes to our liquor laws!

John Jacobi

Isanti 

The March 2015 survey shows that approximately half of 2,500 U.S. consumers polled reported experiencing a problem on their last shopping trip. 

Of those customers, 81% decided not to contact the retailer about the issue. 

Among these silent shoppers, 32% said they were unlikely to recommend the retailer to friends and family, putting these shoppers at-risk of decreasing their spend with the retailer.

By comparison, the study shows that shoppers who did notify retailers of their poor experience and had their problem completely resolved were 84% less likely than silent shoppers to be at risk of decreasing their spend.

"The results are a resounding confirmation that poor customer experiences have a considerable negative impact on shopper spend and attrition which can run into the billions," says Dennis Armbruster, LoyaltyOne Consulting Vice President and Managing Partner.