Another "crazy liquor laws in your state" thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Pennsylvania’s laws have been discussed before; I grew up there, but haven’t lived there in 40 years and never purchased alcohol while living there, so I don’t have much to add re PA laws.

I moved from there to North Carolina, thence to Virginia, which have similar laws: beer / wine sold at any grocery or convenience store, liquor only at state-run stores. NC didn’t have liquor-by-the-drink when we first moved there; there was a huge push by the restaurant industry to fix that. It passed, and despite the naysayers, the state did not go to hell as a result.

I remember being shocked when, in the late 1980s, I first saw liquor sold in regular stores (this was in Indiana, I think - though I gather DC and Maryland both do so as well).

And in NYC, alcohol of any sort was not sold in grocery stores, at least in the early 1990s. You had to go to a separate liquor store for wine, beer or liquor. I think they were privately owned; I only bought wine once or twice while there.

The most amusing was New Hampshire. For several summers in a row, my daughter attended an arts program in southern Maine, and we drove her to / from there. Usually we stayed in a Boston suburb - as it was an easier day trip from home to Boston, then a day trip to/from Portland to the suburb. And we passed huge signs advertising the liquor store just off the exit in New Hampshire.

We finally stopped at one, on the last trip, and were pretty impressed by the selection. Since we drink so little, we didn’t buy much, though I admit I was tempted by one “airplane” bottle that was shaped like a skull (it was poorly labelled but I later found out it was a brand of vodka).

My impression was that the place was so heavily signed because NH has no sales tax, and they were trying to tempt Boston-area residents to go up there to get their hooch. Friends who live in Boston tell me that it generally wasn’t worth the drive.

63

The basic structure of taxes & fees was laid out in the privatization initiative (written mainly to benefit Costco and other large outlets), but by and large the public had too many visions of California style drive-through liquor stores dancing in their heads to pay much attention to that part.

As an aside, somewhat after privatization I spent a couple of years in the IT department of WSLCB* — and if you think it’s confusing on the retail side …

* Washington State Liquor & Cannabis Board (formerly Washington State Liquor Control Board).

64

Virginia, as mentioned before no liquor except in state-run liquor stores and licensed restaurants. Virginia has no “bars”, anywhere that sells alcohol for on=premises consumption also has to sell food, and IIRC food has to total around 45% of their revenue.

There used to be signs at many stores that would say “ABC Off”, that meant the store could sell alcohol for off-premises consumption only, so like a convenience store selling 6-packs. Or you can be “ABC On-Off” which means you can sell alcohol for consumption there or off premises. https://www.abc.virginia.gov/licenses/get-a-license/retail-licenses/on-and-off-premise

65

With the Covid restrictions, in New York now you must buy food in order to get a drink. It’s friggin stupid.

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I grew up in a place where all forms of alcohol, including beer, could be purchased for consumption off the premises only in government-run specialty shops, which were found only in large communities. The government there also had a monopoly on motor vehicle accident insurance, and so saturated the airwaves with public service announcements against drinking and driving. Perhaps because of this upbringing, it amazes me that Europe, where I live now, they sell liquor at highway rest stops. And not just big bottles you might take home with you—next to the cash register there are also the little single-serving bottles of spirits that I assume are intended for immediate consumption. To my mindset, alcohol is the absolute last thing that you’d want to put within easy reach of highway motorists.

67

Earlier this year I bought a bottle of wine and a packaged meal at the mini-mart of a midtown hotel which also sold snacks, soft beverages, and sundries. So at least some places are allowed to sell some types of alcohol along with other things.

68

Pennsylvania as well. Many breweries now sell “Lunchables” at cost. Kind of sad, many people open their Lunchable to remain in compliance with the law, then throw it out, untouched, when they leave.

A goofy PA law requires alcohol have a price > 0. A friend screwed up his Facebook ad offering “Buy six beers, the seventh is a penny” one week, using “free” in place of “a penny” and suffered a big fine.

69

Heck, some gas stations in France have fully stocked bars. I’ve seen truck drivers stopping for a refreshing glass of bubbly (that’s right, sparkling wine, not beer).

Alcohol basically available in any grocery store, gas station or corner shop you may stagger into in the UK, including strong spirits. Of course, this is the country which regards pubs as valuable community centres (not remotely exaggerating).

70

Remember, in Michigan, you don’t go to the beer store, or the liquor store…you go to the Party Store.

71

I few years ago (so the law may have changed) I visited a small distillery in Iowa.

In Iowa a winery can sell the wine made on site without it leaving the premises. Same with a craft brewery, make it on site and can sell it on site.

With hard liquor if the owner wants to sell some of his product at the his/her distillery it needs to be shipped to the state liquor warehouse then shipped back to the distillery to be sold.

72

Ohio is weird!! 1.It;s the only liquor control state that also sells diluted liquor at groceries, drugstores etc 2.They have minimum prices for every brand, and quotas for every brand 3. No free beer or wine–when an art gallery opening was serving free wine, someone complained and Ohio said you have to have special permit for non-profit to serve alcohol. Even samples at stores have to be paid for (usually quarter). 4. We have sin tax on tobacco and alcohol, about 10%, so when you go to state liquor store you pay normal sales tax, sin tax, and fee for using debit or credit. HOWEVER since covid, you can take home up to 3 drinks with food purchase

73

In Ontario, the statutory minimum price for a beer is over $1! That’s so stupid. If the government wants to discourage drinking, they should increase taxes, not stifle competition in the brewing industry.

74

Is that for buying a beer at a restaurant? or per bottle when purchased at a store? (i.e. a six-pack would be 66 bucks). Does it matter whether the beer is a half-pint or a huge mug? Sounds painful.

Not law-related, per so, but when we were in Quebec a couple summers ago, our hotel room had not just an ice bucket with a couple of drinking tumblers like most places have - but also several wine glasses. And they had wine vending machines on several of the floors (including ours). I had to go downstairs to the front desk and prepay on a card to use in the vending machine, then I could get a glass or half-glass of any of the varieties as I desired. I don’t think they’d have let a 15 year old come down and get that prepaid card - but there would seem to be little they could do if a parent then gave the card to a teenager to go down for a glassful.

IIRC, the one wine I wanted to try wasn’t working in the dispenser, so I got something different just for the novelty of it.

75

as a kid I asked my father why liquor stores were robbed a lot. He said they were only stores open late. Now many stores are open late or 24/7

76

It is $1 per bottle purchased at retail. Not $11.

Technically, it’s a bit more complicated.

77

In NYC? You may have been misled.

Beer could always be bought in grocery stores and delis and convenience stores and so on. 24 hours a day, except between midnight and noon on Sunday. Always. And I’m 60 years old, so I’ve been buying beer here quite legally for forty years. And I remember my father buying beer at the local supermarket when I was a little kid.

Hard liquor can be bought only in liquor stores, and that too has always been true. The liquor stores are privately owned – there’s no state liquor stores here.

I occasionally see wine in grocery stores – I don’t know how long this has been going on. It looks like crap wine (in fact, it’s often called “wine product,” whatever that means.

78

In New York, an archaic law prohibited liquor stores from accepting credit cards until the mid-eighties.

So they always had a lot of cash on hand, making them frequent robbery targets.

79

It seems as though everyone in Michigan that sells liquor advertises that theirs is available at the state minimum price. So there’s apparently a minimum price for absolutely every single type of alcohol that is allowed to be sold, and it’s so high that most places would go lower if they were allowed.

It’s also apparently a law in Michigan that warehouse club stores must allow the general public to buy alcohol without membership, and to post a conspicuous sign to that effect near the entrance of the store where people not members might see it. At Costco I have always seen this facing towards the store in the enclosed vestibule (where the carts are stored and there’s a bit of shelter before entering the store itself which requires a membership check). It’s readily viewable by the general public if they walk inside the vestibule and turn around, and is highly conspicuous when you leave, but I have a feeling that the intent of the law is not being met with that sort of display.

80

Hey alcohol is medicine, dude! Or at least it’s a lot closer to medicine than cigarettes are. Which is why drug stores in California can’t sell cigarettes (ok, not exactly. But it’s illegal in San Francisco and a number of other California cities.)

ETA: well darn. Looks like I been taken in by the ol’ zombie thread.