THOMPSON, Justice.

We granted a writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals in Flores v. Exprezit! Stores 98-Georgia, 304 Ga.App. 333, 696 S.E.2d 125 (2010), to determine whether Georgia's dram shop act, OCGA § 51-1-40,1 applies when a convenience store sells closed or packaged containers of alcohol not intended for consumption on the premises to a noticeably intoxicated adult. We hold that it does and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

This case stems from a motor vehicle collision in which six people were killed and several were injured.2 Approximately four hours before the collision, the driver of one of the vehicles, Billy Joe Grundell, drove with a passenger to a convenience store. Grundell was noticeably intoxicated when he entered the store and purchased a 12-pack of beer. Grundell and his passenger drove off and consumed the beer. Later, Grundell crossed the centerline of a highway and ran head-on into a van going the opposite way. At that time, Grundell's blood alcohol concentration was 0.181 grams per 100 milliliters, twice the legal limit.

The injured passengers brought suit under the dram shop act against the convenience store, which was owned or operated by Exprezit! Stores 98-Georgia, LLC. The trial court awarded summary judgment to Exprezit! and the Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the dram shop act does not apply under any circumstances to the sale of closed or packaged alcoholic beverages not intended for consumption on the premises.

The dram shop act provides, in pertinent part:

OCGA § 51-1-40.3

Because this statute uses the terms "sells, furnishes, or serves" alcohol in the disjunctive, it is clear that it was intended to encompass the sale of an alcoholic beverage at places other than the proverbial dram shop.4 The Court of Appeals acknowledged as much in previous cases5 and in the case at bar. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals refused to apply the statute to such sales because, in its view, it "would lead to wholly impracticable results." Flores, supra at 336, 696 S.E.2d 125. In this regard, the Court of Appeals reasoned:

(Citations omitted.) Id. The upshot of the Court of Appeals' decision is that the dram shop act is to be applied only where an alcoholic beverage is served or poured on premises to an adult.6 That would mean that a convenience store cannot be held liable for selling closed or packaged alcoholic beverages to a noticeably intoxicated adult under any set of circumstances. We cannot accept this interpretation of the statute.

Although the dram shop act makes it clear that it is the consumption of alcohol, not the selling or furnishing, which leads to injuries in this state, it goes on to create two exceptions to the rule for liability purposes: an individual may be liable for injuries if he furnishes or serves alcoholic beverages to a person who is underage, knowing he will soon be driving; and if he furnishes or serves alcoholic beverages to a noticeably intoxicated adult, knowing he will soon be driving. Liability is not imposed under either one of these exceptions, however, unless the furnishing or serving of the alcoholic beverage is the proximate cause of injury. OCGA § 51-1-40. We find these statutory requirements to be straightforward and under the plain language of the statute are equally applicable to convenience stores and traditional dram shops.

In Delta Airlines v. Townsend, 279 Ga. 511, 614 S.E.2d 745 (2005), this Court held that the dram shop act does not apply to sales of alcoholic beverages on airplanes. In so doing, we stated the general rule in cases of this kind to be that

Id. at 513, 614 S.E.2d 745. We recognized, however, that

Id. at 515, 614 S.E.2d 745.

Exprezit! argues that, like airlines, convenience stores have no way of knowing if their customers will soon be driving a motor vehicle. It also contends that unlike taverns, bars and restaurants, where customers consume alcoholic beverages on the premises, convenience stores are limited in their ability to discern whether their customers are noticeably intoxicated. We disagree. When a convenience store sells alcoholic beverages to a customer it will often have an opportunity to observe how the customer arrived and, conversely, the manner in which he will depart. Thus, a convenience store may very well know if a customer will soon be driving a motor vehicle. Moreover, the convenience store seller does have an opportunity to observe the customer to determine if he appears to be noticeably intoxicated.7 It is true that, compared to a traditional dram shop, a convenience store may not have an equal opportunity to observe its customers. But this simply goes to the facts of the case; if a plaintiff cannot demonstrate the convenience store knowingly sold alcoholic beverages to a noticeably intoxicated person who would soon be driving a motor vehicle, the convenience store would be entitled to summary judgment. This is not to say that the dram shop act cannot be applied to sales made by convenience stores as a matter of law. Each case must rise or fall on its own facts. See, e.g., Studebaker's of Savannah v. Tibbs, 195 Ga.App. 142, 146-147, 392 S.E.2d 908 (1990) (whether patron was noticeably intoxicated was question for jury).

The Court of Appeals found the dram shop act inapplicable to a convenience store's sale of packaged alcohol because, even if it sells packaged alcohol to a noticeably intoxicated adult, it could not know if the purchaser "would drink the beer, how much he might drink, when he might do so, or whether he would drive soon after drinking." Flores, supra at 335, 696 S.E.2d 125. However, a plain reading of the dram shop act shows that it does not require the seller of alcoholic beverages to know when or how much alcohol a purchaser will consume before he gets behind the wheel. Riley v. H & H Operations, 263 Ga. 652, 436 S.E.2d 659, supra, offers guidance on this point.8 In that case, we found the dram shop act constitutional and reversed the grant of summary judgment to a convenience store that sold packaged alcoholic beverages to a minor. The convenience store argued that the words "driving soon" exposed the store to unlimited liability because, much like the Court of Appeals' concerns in this case, it had no way of knowing that the customer would not be driving until four and one-half hours later. We disagreed, holding that "[a]lthough `soon' does not have a fixed temporal meaning, in the context of the [a]ct it is sufficiently definite and certain in meaning to give proper guidance to those bound by its terms." Id. at 654, 436 S.E.2d 659. Thus, by focusing in this case on the convenience store's knowledge as to the purchaser's plans to consume the beer, the Court of Appeals missed the mark. The focus should have been solely on the convenience stores' knowledge as to whether its customer was noticeably intoxicated and would be driving soon. Id.; Delta Airlines v. Townsend, supra at 513, 614 S.E.2d 745. If a convenience store sells alcohol to such a customer, it is foreseeable that the customer will drive while intoxicated and injure an innocent third party. Id. And if the plaintiff can prove that such sale of alcohol was a proximate cause of any injuries, the convenience store will be held liable. OCGA § 51-1-40(b).

It is fundamental that:

(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Mullins v. First General Ins. Co., 253 Ga. 486, 487, 322 S.E.2d 265 (1984). The Court of Appeals abandoned these fundamental principles when it declared that the legislature did not intend to apply the dram shop act to the sale of closed or packaged containers of alcohol by convenience stores. It follows that we must answer the question posed on certiorari by this Court in the affirmative.

Judgment reversed.

All the Justices concur, except BENHAM, J., who dissents.

BENHAM, Justice, dissenting

I respectfully dissent to the majority's opinion that Georgia's Dram Shop Act, OCGA § 51-1-40, applies to grocery and convenience stores that sell alcoholic beverages in closed containers or packages intended for consumption elsewhere. During the years that the dram shop law has been in existence, it has never been applied to grocery stores, convenience stores, or mom and pop roadside stores. In fact, the General Assembly has declared that "the consumption of alcoholic beverages" is the behavior being regulated by the act rather than the sale of such beverages. See OCGA § 51-1-40(a). If the legislature had intended for the law to apply to such stores, the legislature could have amended the act to provide for their specific inclusion. The herculean step the majority opinion takes today by including such stores in the sweep of the Dram Shop Act is contrary to the history of the act's application and experience.

Establishments such as grocery and convenience stores are different in kind from restaurants, bars and clubs where alcohol is consumed openly on the premises and where employees interact numerous times with their customers. In grocery and convenience stores, store clerks have very little contact with the customers standing in line waiting to make their purchases. Often the brief interaction between grocery and convenience store clerks and their customers is limited to nothing more than determining the amount and form of payment. If the convenience store is in a gas station setting, clerks may be enclosed behind sturdy glass windows where money is exchanged through a small opening in the glass. With the advent of smart technologies, grocery store customers can now use machines to check themselves out and pay for items, essentially eliminating all human interaction. In these situations, store clerks are not in a position to judge the sobriety of their customers, much less to determine whether their customers will be driving soon.

The negative impact of the majority's opinion will be far-reaching, in particular exposing small businesses to indeterminate liability and almost-certain economic ruin. Should we require general store clerks, as opposed to licensed bartenders, to judge sobriety or to investigate which customers arrived at the store by driving a vehicle, rather than as a passenger or pedestrian? Will stores now be required to keep surveillance recordings for the duration of the statute of limitations period on the chance that one of its customers is involved in an accident, perhaps long after he or she last set foot in the store?9 The steps necessary to ensure against this liability for grocery and convenience stores are unworkable at best. Courts have had difficulty establishing this knowledge of a patron's intentions with regard to on-premises alcohol sales, much less in the context of a fleeting interaction in the checkout line of a grocery or convenience store which sells many products and beverages other than alcohol. See Becks v. Pierce, 282 Ga.App. 229, 234, 638 S.E.2d 390 (2007) (finding "evidence that most customers drove to the [b]ar" was insufficient to establish that they knew the consumer would be driving soon). Moreover, unlike a bar or restaurant, a convenience store employee has no way to monitor or control the customer's post-sale actions. As the Court of Appeals correctly observed below, "[The employee] did not know if [the customer] would drink the beer, how much he might drink, when he might do so, or whether he would drive soon after drinking[,]" therefore providing no legitimate basis to conclude "that it was or should have been reasonably foreseeable to [the employee] that [the customer] would soon drive while intoxicated from consuming the packaged beer it sold." Flores v. Exprezit! Stores 98-Georgia, 304 Ga.App. 333, 335-336, 696 S.E.2d 125 (2010). A finding of proximate cause in these situations would almost always require the jury to rely on pure speculation in order to import liability to a grocery or convenience store. Id. at 336, 696 S.E.2d 125; Dildine v. Town & Country Truck Sales, 259 Ga.App. 732, 734, 577 S.E.2d 882 (2003) (finding that inferences based on "speculation or guesswork [are] improper bases for liability"). Such a result is not supported by the legislative intent behind the statute.

Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.