Whether you can buy alcohol on Sunday in Alabama depends on the city or county you’re standing in. Alabama has no single statewide rule for Sunday sales. Each county and municipality decides for itself whether Sunday sales are allowed, what hours apply, and whether the rules cover bars, restaurants, package stores, or all three. You might order a mimosa at brunch in Birmingham and then drive half an hour to a town where every shelf stays locked until Monday morning.
Why the Answer Depends on Where You Are
Two separate local decisions have to line up before Sunday sales are legal anywhere in the state.
The first is the wet-or-dry question. Every Alabama county is classified as wet, meaning alcohol sales are legal, or dry, meaning they’re generally prohibited. A dry county can still contain individual cities that have voted themselves wet through a municipal option election, which requires a population of at least 1,000 and a majority vote.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 28 2A-1 – Procedure for Wet or Dry Classification Option Elections The Alabama ABC Board publishes a current list showing each county’s status and the wet cities inside otherwise dry counties.2Alabama ABC Board. Wet Cities If your location is dry, no Sunday rule matters. You can’t buy alcohol there on any day.
The second decision is Sunday itself. Even in wet areas, Sunday sales don’t turn on automatically. Under Alabama Code Section 28-3-25, a wet county’s commission can pass a resolution authorizing Sunday sales by ABC-licensed retailers for on-premises consumption, off-premises consumption, or both. The statute’s baseline is that sales may be authorized “after the hour of two o’clock a.m.” on Sunday, leaving the actual opening hour to the local government. A wet municipality can do the same through an ordinance, and the governing body can also require a public referendum, with a majority vote putting the change into effect.3Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 28 3-25 – Counties and Municipalities Authorized to Extend Time of Sale of Alcoholic Beverages on Sunday by Resolution or Referendum
A 2017 change, codified at Section 28-3-24, added a second lever. In places where Sunday on-premises sales were already legal after 10:00 a.m., the act let those areas start as early as 10:00 a.m. It also allowed the legislature to push the start time earlier through local law.4Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 28 3-24 – Sunday Sales of Alcoholic Beverages
Typical Sunday Hours in Alabama
Because the hours are set locally, there is no single answer for the whole state. A few patterns show up repeatedly.
Bars and restaurants in cities that adopted the 10:00 a.m. option under Section 28-3-24, such as Birmingham and Huntsville, can pour alcohol with brunch. Other municipalities set noon as the earliest on-premises start. Retail and off-premises sales, like grabbing a six-pack from a grocery store, often begin at noon or later, and some ordinances treat on-premises and off-premises hours differently within the same city.
Closing times follow the same local logic. Bars with the appropriate license can typically serve until 2:00 a.m., matching the cutoff on other nights. Package and retail sellers often have to stop earlier, commonly around 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., with the exact hour set locally. Muscle Shoals, for example, prohibits all alcohol sales between 2:00 a.m. and noon on Sundays at any establishment authorized to sell for on-premises consumption.
Restaurants vs. Package Stores
Alabama issues different alcohol licenses depending on what a business sells and how, and Sunday rules can differ across those categories inside the same city. Tuscaloosa, for instance, issues separate licenses for restaurant liquor, lounge liquor, retail beer for on-premises consumption, and retail beer and table wine for off-premises consumption, among others.5City of Tuscaloosa. Alcohol Beverage License A restaurant with a liquor license may open earlier on Sunday than a package store with an off-premises beer and wine license, even if they share a block.
What that means as a shopper: the restaurant serving mimosas at 10:00 a.m. is not evidence that the grocery store next door can sell you a bottle of wine at the same hour. Check whether the specific kind of sale you want, not just “alcohol sales” in general, is allowed at that time and place.
Sunday Alcohol Delivery
Alabama legalized home delivery of beer, wine, and spirits in 2021 through a delivery service license established in Section 28-3A-13.1. Delivery is tied to the same hours as in-store sales, so a licensed delivery service can only bring alcohol during hours when it could legally be sold in a store under general or local law.6Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 28 3A-13.1 – Delivery Service License If your city doesn’t allow Sunday retail sales until noon, no app can deliver at 11:00.
Delivery also comes with strict ID rules. The recipient has to present valid photo identification and sign for the package, and the driver has to use identification-scanning software or a board-approved alternative to confirm the recipient is at least 21. If the recipient can’t produce ID or complete verification, the alcohol goes back to the retailer. Every package must also be labeled to show it contains alcohol and requires an adult signature.6Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 28 3A-13.1 – Delivery Service License
How to Check Your Local Rules
Start with the ABC Board’s Wet Cities list, which shows each county’s status and identifies wet municipalities inside dry counties.2Alabama ABC Board. Wet Cities If your area is dry, Sunday sales aren’t happening. If it’s wet, call the city clerk or the county commission to ask whether a Sunday sales ordinance or referendum is in place, what hours it sets, and whether on-premises and off-premises sales are treated differently.
Don’t assume neighboring places match. Jefferson County is wet, but Blount County next door is dry, with only a handful of individual cities, including Oneonta and Hayden, that have voted wet.2Alabama ABC Board. Wet Cities Inside a wet area, one town may allow Sunday sales starting at 10:00 a.m. while another a few miles away starts at noon or doesn’t allow them at all. When in doubt, call ahead.