Coming Soon to a Town Near You

Coming Soon to a Town Near You

For many years, South Carolina has limited the number of liquor stores an owner may have within the state to three. However, that law is no longer enforceable thanks to a recent South Carolina Supreme Court decision.

Total Wine & More, a large wine and liquor retailer that’s likely familiar to residents of Charleston, Greenville, and Columbia, was denied a fourth liquor license to open a new store in Aiken. In response, it brought an action seeking a declaratory judgment that the limitations in the law were unconstitutional.

The trial court found the provisions constitutional because they presume laws are constitutional, but when the issue was appealed, the Supreme Court found the reverse.

Now that the law has been declared unconstitutional, expect to see some bigger name stores dominate the alcohol landscape across the state, perhaps starting with Total Wine in Aiken.

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