What Time Can You Purchase Alcohol in NC: ABC Hours and Sunday Rules

In North Carolina, you can buy beer, wine, and mixed drinks from 7:00 AM to 2:00 AM Monday through Saturday at any licensed retailer, restaurant, or bar. Sunday sales start at noon by default, or at 10:00 AM in cities and counties that have adopted the “Brunch Bill” ordinance. Liquor is sold only at state-run ABC stores, which operate within a narrower window and never open on Sundays.¹

Weekday and Saturday Hours for Beer, Wine, and Mixed Drinks

State law prohibits the sale of beer, unfortified wine, fortified wine, and mixed drinks between 2:00 AM and 7:00 AM every day except Sunday. From Monday through Saturday, that leaves a 19-hour window: 7:00 AM until 2:00 AM the next morning. Grocery stores, convenience stores, bars, and restaurants all work from the same clock, though most retail stores close long before the 2:00 AM cutoff.¹

If you’re sitting at a bar or restaurant, 2:00 AM is the last call for a sale. You then have until 2:30 AM to finish your drink. After that, the establishment must clear all alcoholic beverages from tables, counters, and the bar itself, and no patron may possess an open container on the premises.²

ABC Store Hours for Liquor

Spirituous liquor can only be bought at ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) stores. These are government-run outlets managed by local boards, and you won’t find liquor at a grocery store, gas station, or convenience store anywhere in the state.

State law prohibits ABC stores from opening before 9:00 AM or staying open past 9:00 PM. Within that window, each local board sets its own schedule, so hours vary by county.³ Most stores run the full 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM day, but it’s worth checking your local board’s posted hours before driving over.

If you need spirits on a Sunday or after 9:00 PM any night of the week, you’re out of options.

Sunday Hours

Sunday follows its own set of rules, and they split between the beverage you’re buying and the local jurisdiction you’re buying in.

Beer, Wine, and Mixed Drinks

The statewide default is that no alcoholic beverage can be sold on licensed premises between 2:00 AM and noon on Sunday. From noon on, the regular rules take over, running until 2:00 AM Monday morning.¹

In 2017, the state passed what’s commonly called the Brunch Bill. It gave cities and counties the option to adopt a local ordinance moving the Sunday start time from noon to 10:00 AM. The option covers both on-premise locations like restaurants and bars and off-premise retailers like grocery and convenience stores.⁴ Hundreds of jurisdictions have opted in. Many have not. If your city or county hasn’t passed the ordinance, noon is still the cutoff.

A nuance worth knowing: even in a jurisdiction that hasn’t adopted the Brunch Bill, local government cannot block Sunday sales at establishments with brown-bagging or mixed beverages permits from noon onward. The local option only controls whether to allow the earlier 10:00 AM start.

Liquor

ABC stores are closed every Sunday, statewide, with no local override available.³ If you need liquor for a Sunday gathering, buy it Saturday.

Holiday Closures

G.S. 18B-802 requires ABC stores to close only on Sundays, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.³ Beyond those three dates, each local ABC board decides on its own whether to close for New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, or Easter Monday. Many boards do close on several of those days, but the closures vary by county, so check locally before planning around a holiday.

Bars, restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores selling beer and wine are not subject to the ABC store holiday rules. They can operate on any holiday during normal permitted hours unless a local ordinance says otherwise. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the Sunday rules apply as usual.

Dry Cities and Local Variation

North Carolina uses a local-option system. Before any jurisdiction can allow alcohol sales, local voters have to approve it through a referendum.⁵ Every county in the state has voted to allow some form of alcohol sales, but a number of individual cities and towns remain dry. Inside those borders, the hours above don’t matter because no alcohol is sold at all.

For jurisdictions that do allow sales, local governments control the Brunch Bill decision and can restrict retail beer and wine sales on Sundays through local ordinance.¹ If you’re visiting an unfamiliar area, a quick call to the city clerk or local ABC board will confirm what applies before you go.

Delivery Hours

Licensed restaurants, bars, hotels, breweries, wineries, and distilleries can deliver certain alcoholic beverages for off-premise consumption. Mixed drinks, single-serving wine drinks, and single-serving fortified wine drinks all qualify, with each container capped at 24 fluid ounces. The drinks have to be sold alongside a food purchase and sealed in a container designed to prevent consumption without removing the lid.⁶

Delivery can come from the permit holder directly or from a licensed delivery service. The important point for timing: all deliveries have to occur during the same legal sale hours that apply to in-person purchases. A 3:00 AM cocktail delivery isn’t happening. The rules in this area were formalized in 2024 out of pandemic-era allowances and have been evolving, so check with the NC ABC Commission for the current details if you’re relying on delivery.

1
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 18B-1004 – Hours for Sale and Consumption
2
LII / Legal Information Institute. 14B NC Admin Code 15B 0202 – Clearing Tables/Counters; Hours for Possession/Removal
3
North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina General Statutes 18B-802 – When Stores Operate
4
North Carolina General Assembly. Session Law 2017-87 Senate Bill 155
5
NC ABC Commission. About the NC ABC Commission
6
North Carolina General Assembly. Session Law 2024-41 (SB 527)