Monday afternoon, Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp signed HB 879, a bill permitting the home delivery of beer, alcohol and wine. However, the new law excludes distilleries from delivering their goods directly to a person’s residence.
The Georgia Department of Revenue will draw up the regulations and measures needed for businesses to comply with the law.
HB879 requires alcohol deliveries to be accepted in person and only by someone 21 years or older and with legal identification. The law also leaves the decision to allow alcohol delivery from certain businesses up to local municipalities, much like the decisions to permit Sunday alcohol sales and restaurants and bars to begin serving booze on Sundays at 11 a.m.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s executive order temporarily allowing restaurants to sell unopened beer and wine to-go for off-premise consumption during the pandemic has continued. The order does not include open containers or cocktails.
Before 2011, Georgia was the last Southern state that had an all-day ban on Sunday alcohol sales in package or grocery stores. Some have cited The Bible saying, it does not allow believers to imbibe. However, Proverbs 23:20 says, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.” Isaiah 5:11 also says, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine.”
Since then, Atlanta, Columbus, Savannah, and other urban municipalities started rolling back those demands, allowing liquor-by-the-drink sales at bars and restaurants on Sundays as the state relaxed their laws allowing Sunday alcohol sales.
Sentiments in Georgia have changed due to the raging pandemic and subsequent economic downturn. More individuals have opted for home delivery of groceries, meals, and other products in an attempt to steer clear of the Coronavirus.
The law allows local municipalities to opt-out of allowing alcoholic beverage delivery. Whether restaurants could deliver would depend on local laws that govern their business.
