It's official: You can now buy alcohol at stores on Sunday in Indiana

Gov. Eric Holcomb signed into law a repeal of Indiana's unpopular ban on Sunday carryout alcohol sales, allowing Hoosiers to buy beer, wine and liquor at stores on Sunday for the first time in Indiana history.

At a signing ceremony Wednesday in his Statehouse office, Holcomb put his signature to Senate Bill 1, which allows Sunday sales from noon and 8 p.m. at grocery, convenience, drug and liquor stores.

The new law goes into effect immediately, meaning shoppers will be able to add booze to their shopping carts this Sunday.

"Now when you do your shopping on Sunday," Holcomb said, "all the aisles will be open to you if you want to make a pit stop before the tailgate."

The new law ends a retail Sunday alcohol sales ban that began in 1816 and was reinstated after Prohibition ended in the 1930s.

The popularity of the measure was evident in the fanfare surrounding the signing ceremony. The governor's office live streamed it on Facebook and Holcomb was surrounded by legislative leaders, including House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tempore David Long.

After noting that the Sunday sales ban dates back to the beginning of statehood, Bosma quipped: "It's only taken us 202 years to resolve that prohibition."

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Also present were chairmen of the two legislative committees that handle alcohol issues, including Sen. Ron Alting, who has blocked Sunday sales bills in his committee for nearly a decade, but allowed the effort to go forward this year.

Alting’s change of heart came after the small but powerful liquor store industry, which long opposed Sunday sales, struck a deal with the state’s large retail grocery stores. The pact called for both groups to accept Sunday sales but oppose efforts to end the liquor store industry’s virtual monopoly on cold beer.

The Republican lawmakers sought to downplay the bill's importance. Democrats have been criticizing them for prioritizing it amid other pressing issues.

"I don’t think anybody would say this is the most important bill of the session, but it is very symbolic that we are finally putting some of these archaic alcohol laws in Indiana in the rear view mirror," Long, who is retiring in November, said. "The consumer is coming first for a change."

Retailers have been preparing for Sunday sales in recent weeks. Grocery and convenience stores have updated cash register software that previously prohibited sales on Sundays, while liquor stores that have traditionally closed on Sunday have re-arranged schedules or ramped up staffing.

Consumers, meanwhile, will no longer have to endure those mildly embarrassing moments at the cash register on Sundays when the clerk reminds you alcohol is off limits.

"There’s no need to cross the border anymore in the state of Indiana," Holcomb said, referring to a familiar Sunday custom for Hoosiers who live near the state line. "They’ll have the ability to do it all seven days of the week."

Left unresolved is another unpopular Indiana alcohol rule that prohibits grocery and convenience stores from selling cold beer. That privilege is reserved in state law for liquor stores.

Indiana is the only state in the nation that regulates beer based on temperature and recent polling shows that a large majority of Hoosiers support expanding cold beer sales to other alcohol retailers.

Asked when Hoosiers should expect Indiana's cold beer law to change, Holcomb said: "Let’s get through Sunday first. We will cross that bridge when we come to it."

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.