A spokesperson for the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division says the change in law last July that made it easier for convenience stores to sell liquor has not had a big impact on the division’s bottom line. IABD spokesperson, Tonya Dusold, says they saw a bump in sales at the end of last year as the convenience stores stocked their shelves — but that’s been the main impact.
“It hasn’t made a huge impact overall, this is about where we expected to be. We have seen a lot of them drop off, they’re not ordering every single week as they’ve gotten their stock and inventory built up, unlike your grocery stores that order every single week,” Dusold says.
Dusold says the convenience stores in the more urban areas have less turnover of their inventory because they face competition from the larger stores that had already been selling liquor. “Now it’s different in a smaller town, if a convenience store is carrying liquor, they’re probably the only one in town and you are going to see more sales out of that than you are a C-store that’s in an urban area that’s around grocery stores and liquor stores as well,” Dusold says.
Some larger metropolitan areas like Waterloo and Des Moines have move to put local restrictions on the sale of alcohol at conveniences stores over concerns of how the sales might impact neighborhoods.