State liquor stores may soon be free to open seven days a week, a prospect that is leaving many city booze-sellers less than stoked.

A provision in the budget passed Wednesday night by the state Legislature allows liquor shops to operate every day, one year after lawmakers gave owners the option of opening on Sunday if they closed another day of the week.

Many owners are wary of the possible change, saying that market pressure will force them to stay open every day, even when they feel six days are plenty.

“It’s better to squeeze business in six days than in seven days,” said Kobi Weichman, the owner of 86th Street Wine and Liquor. “It’s going to get a little more money, but it’s not going to be worth it.”

When the state gave liquor stores the option of opening on Sunday for the first time last year, just 15% of businesses took advantage. Still, national distillers have kept up their push for the relaxation of restrictions on liquor sales all over the country.

“It really is the last bastion of the Blue Laws,” said David Wojnar, a vice president at the Distilled Spirits Council, a lobbying group. For the council, allowing liquor shops to open seven days a week was about choice.

“It provides the store owner with the ultimate flexibility as to how they want to run their business,” Mr. Wojnar said. “It should be up to each owner to decide to when they want to open their store.”

While lobbyists in the distilling industry pointed to a boost in sales as a result of last year’s change, critics say the difference was minimal.

“An extremely small proportion of those sales came from 383 out of 2,500 stores [in New York] being open on Sundays,” said William McDevitt, the president of the Metropolitan Package Store Organization, a trade group that opposes the relaxed law because of the burden this put on store owners.

Those opposing the new law charge that it is not intended to help the small liquor businesses, but the major distilling brands. “I never thought it was state policy to see if people can drink more,” Mr. McDevitt said.

The budget provision still faces a hurdle in Governor Pataki, who yesterday said he was likely to veto certain budget items, although he did not specify which ones. He vetoed the provision that allowed Sunday sales last year before a Legislature override made it law.

Michael Kapon, the owner of the prominent Acker Merrall & Condit wine shop, said he would probably open his stores on Sunday if the governor signed the bill.

“In a competitive world, if one place opens, then another place will open,” said Mr. Kapon, whose store on the Upper West Side opened in 1820.