With his eye on luring a new grocery store into her ward, Ald. Pat O'Connor (40th) has reportedly begun talking to colleagues about loosening up the city's restrictions on Sunday liquor sales.
The north side alderman wants to permit the sale of "package goods liquor" beginning at 8 a.m., instead of 11 a.m. on Sundays, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
"I’ve been talking with people who own grocery store chains. I’m kind of getting a primer on how grocery stores make money and don’t make money and this came up. If they’re leaving revenue on the table and they could make more money from something so simple, it’s worth looking at," he was quoted as saying.
For those concerned about people who'd been out all night buying booze at smaller shops, O'Connor said "there are ways to approach that."
"We could have a minimum square footage [where 8 a.m. sales would be allowed]," he said.
O'Connor's ward recently lost a Dominick's store on Lincoln Avenue north of Foster Avenue.