Minnesota continues to be overshadowed by prohibition liquor laws – and it’s hurting small businesses like mine

I am the proud owner of 36^th & Lyn Refuel Station, an independently owned, community-focused refueling station and convenience store located in the heart of South Minneapolis. Last week, I read an article published in MinnPost that highlighted efforts at the State Capitol to change Minnesota liquor laws during this year’s legislative session.

However, I couldn’t help but notice this “deal” leaves out businesses like mine.

It is the year 2022, almost 100 years since the prohibition ended in America, and Minnesota continues to ban gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores from being able to sell full-strength beer and wine as if it were 1922.

Minnesota is long overdue for modernizing its liquor laws. We are one of the only few remaining states in the country where you are unable to buy a six-pack of your favorite beer while at a convenience store like mine.

As an owner of a small convenience store, today’s laws prohibit me from selling regular beer and wine my customers want. I am only allowed sell 3.2 percent beer, but I don’t since the market for 3.2 products has rapidly declining. People aren’t purchasing 3.2 beer, and very few brewers are producing it anymore. When the legislature finally allowed Minnesotans to buy liquor on Sundays, another antiquated liquor law that wasn’t changed until 2017, people no longer had a reason to buy 3.2 products.

I am happy breweries are making progress on finally obtaining the freedom to sell more growlers and crowlers to their customers. But what about freedom for businesses like mine? Where is the freedom for my customers and my community to buy the products they want at my store?

There is no “peace in the valley,” as the MinnPost article describes. Because the “valley” continues to leave small entrepreneurs like me out. It leaves out the people who shop and rely on my neighborhood store for their goods. Legislators continue to actively prevent grocery stores and convenience store owners like me from offering and selling products our customers readily want.

There is also talk of implementing a five-year moratorium to prohibit people like me from asking elected officials even consider changing Minnesota’s liquor law. This goal was referred to as a “five-year ceasefire.”

However, it is not a ceasefire. It is a prohibition on grocery and convenience stores from being able to try and provide choice and convenience for our shoppers, and a prohibition on our consumers from advocating for modernization.

36th & Lyn was built on the premise of changing the way people traditionally view convenience stores and gas stations. I am proud to offer my customers locally sourced, quality products. There are several local breweries by my store that I would like to support and have their products on my shelves, but lawmakers seem set on making convenience stores like mine anything but convenient for owners like me and the communities we serve.

Minnesotans have been through a lot these past two years. My store has been through a lot. My community has been through a lot. I continuously hear how our elected leaders want to help small businesses and communities like mine rebuild and grow, yet I see them do things like this that only hold my business and community back.

Modernizing our liquor laws would help small businesses stay competitive and continue to serve our communities while giving craft breweries and local wineries the ability to sell their products in more ways.

I urge our lawmakers to move Minnesota forward, modernize our prohibition-era liquor laws, and allow mom and pop stores like mine to provide convenience and choice to our customers.

Lonnie McQuirter is a product of North Minneapolis and owner of 36^th & Lyn Refuel Station at 36^th Street and Lyndale Avenue South in Minneapolis.