Merchants and restaurant owners within Elgin’s city limits could begin selling alcohol on Sunday as soon as early March, according to officials. Elgin voters approved a referendum allowing Sunday alcohol sales in the Feb. 1 election with 122 voters in favor and 81 voters were opposed.

Now that the referendum has passed, Judy Darby-Buchanan, Elgin town clerk said the town of Elgin’s attorney has been gathering all the proper paperwork to be submitted to the S.C. Department of Revenue (SCDOR) so that proprietors can begin applying for Sunday alcohol permits.

Last November, voters county-wide approved a similar ballot measure lifting the restriction on Sunday operating hours, known as “blue laws.” The passage of this referendum allowed business owners in Kershaw County to open before 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and sell a wider variety of products, excluding alcohol.

The city of Camden passed the same referendum regarding alcohol sales as Elgin in the November general election.

Dr. Chester Ferguson, president of the Elgin Business Association, said he hopes this will allow Elgin business to keep customers on Sunday.

“Generally speaking, this will only affect a few businesses within Elgin,” he said. “But it’s about keeping sales dollars within the town.”

Ferguson said the Elgin Business Association supported this referendum to keep Elgin from losing customers to Richland County.

“We really had to look at this as ‘what’s best for the town?’” he said. “Our campaign right now is ‘Think Elgin First’ and that is just to let people know to check out businesses in town before going somewhere else. This will help keep business in town.”

Tony Bonds, owner of the Elgin grocery store, IGA, said while he is not personally in favor of selling alcohol on Sunday, he can’t deny that it makes business sense.

“We have lost eight to ten percent of sales on Sunday,” Bonds said. “Plus Sunday is the third busiest day of the week.”

Bonds said that the percentage sales were not lost from alcohol sales, but groceries, because when people are buying beer or wine, they also purchase meat and other products.

The summer months, Bonds said, are generally when the most business is lost because of barbeques and NASCAR.

“From a personal stand point, I don’t want to sell on Sunday, but we need to for business,” he said. “I hope to see growth now that we’re on a level playing field with Richland County.”