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Will COVID-19 Permanently Change Business Rules and Regulations? The rules that govern business have shifted in the past few months, creating lots of new opportunities for entrepreneurs. But will the changes really stick?

By Jason Feifer

This story appears in the July 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

Hiroshi Watanabe | Getty Images

The restaurant industry has spent years pushing a once radical idea: Restaurants should be able to sell alcohol to go. But very few lawmakers supported it.

Then COVID-19 arrived. To help restaurants survive, more than 30 states temporarily changed their laws to allow off-­premise alcohol sales. Consumers are thrilled; in surveys, up to 85 percent say they want to-go alcohol forever. So now the industry has a new ambition. "Our goal is to make these temporary ordinances permanent," says Mike Whatley, the National Restaurant Association's VP of state and local affairs.

Related: A 10-Point Small-Business Survival Plan for Dealing With the Coronavirus

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