On March 17, 2020, Governor Henry McMaster issued an executive order to close dine-in food service, closing many restaurants and bars entirely for the duration. Potential for revenue was reduced significantly as McMaster's order remained in effect for nearly two months, when outdoor seating was allowed on May 1, and dining rooms were permitted to reopen on May 8. The dine-in closure to flatten the curve of Covid-19 set in motion a series of events that has further crippled the food and beverage industry. In April, South Carolina reached an unemployment rate of 12.1%, the highest in modern statistical recording.

In the months of closed dining rooms and bars, over half of all jobs in the hospitality field were wiped out. Direct restaurant and bar employees of around 8,000 bars and restaurants across the state were displaced, many have been since March. Farmers, truckers, warehouse workers, restaurant supply, food and alcohol distributors, landscapers, electricians, plumbers, musicians, and entertainers were all left with voids for work. With most of the food and beverage industry closed for business, both direct employees and contracted workers have been stuck with the inability to feed the starving economy.

In a state of 5 million people, including adult men and women, children, and elderly, close to  2.1 million were actively employed in March of 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are roughly 232,000 kitchen, service, and management workers statewide. These establishments are multi-faceted and serve as community meeting areas, town halls, food sources, and recreation sources to name a few. The almost 15,000 South Carolinian bartenders, servers, or hosts who work in a bar or lounge, have lost an extra three hours per shift in revenue that is generated on a commission style pay system. For the most part, the sales for a bar are highly concentrated in the last three or four hours of the evening. 

A bartender who works three shifts a week and averages $200 between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. has lost the ability to earn nearly $10,000 over the three month duration of Last Call. These workers are paying taxes and feeding money into an economy that they do not have the means to support and a government that  does not support them. The small business owners who are being negatively affected have lost over 330 hours of potential revenue and are still being taxed by a state desiring to make a scapegoat of the bar industry that lives in fear of a pandemic they are told is spread during late hours. None are being told there will be a continuance on liquor licenses they have already paid  for, none are being reimbursed for the expenses they paid pre-Covid to governing institutions, and none are being given any answers regarding their  livelihood, a livelihood our leaders do not seem to understand.      

On October 23, 2020, McMaster addressed an inquiry from a bar owner in Myrtle Beach regarding a timetable for lifting the Last Call Rule. Our Governor's response that he does not know when that will be realistic left us without  promise and showed us a leader without direction, empathy, or concern for his own state’s economy. Evidently, there is no end in sight for a bar industry struggling to limp through this economy and support other industries that depend on the bar and service industry to survive. Governor McMaster made himself clear there is no intention of lifting the Last Call Rule that has been effective since July 11. In the sixteen weeks of Last Call, tax paying South Carolinians are still being forced to stop on-premise service and sales of alcohol at 11 p.m., for fear of losing the alcohol licenses they paid and worked hard to acquire. Bar owners are reporting as much as 40% sales drop since Last Call was initiated, closing in on four months.

Last Call was initiated to protect the older generations by way of keeping young people from congregating around bars. In early July, the peak of summer in South Carolina, half of all Covid-19 cases reported in South Carolina were people 21-31 years old. At the end of October, the state is closing out tourist season in most areas. The bar and service industries have suffered and struggled under the Last Call Rule and closing down for two months. Governor Henry McMaster and the South Carolina State Legislature need to prioritize getting the bar and service industries back into our economy. There is a web of damage that has spread into other industries and harming the economy comparable to our leader's view on Covid-19 at 11:01 p.m. This needs to be repaired and we need to slow the spread of damage on the bar and service industries.

We suggest a gentle lift on the South Carolina Last Call Rule. Allow normal alcohol sale hours for on-premise consumption. Make this allowance for a period of two weeks on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights; however, this allowance should be based on a county-by-county case and/or by municipality basis. Considering there are no spikes in Covid cases, Last Call should be lifted at the two week point. There needs to be a timetable for lifting Last Call because we have reached a point where it appears we are supporting a governmental system that does not reciprocate support and showing a valuable member of the South Carolina economy very few  attempts to stop and repair the damage it has caused.