Many places allowed drinks to go that hadn’t previously. Now that covid seems to be in decline, these permissions are being revoked. What’s the issue? Apparently, the public really likes the idea. Is it public drunkenness? Drinking while driving? There are already laws against those things. Or is it just the general idea of that old demon alcohol being uncaged (gasp!)?
There was a relaxation of laws against public consumption here. During quarantine we could go to a brewery and get a growler filled to take home.
One day someone stayed at the parking lot (a huge lot) and consumed there, sitting in camp chairs they’d brought along. Police investigated and decided to allow it if things didn’t get out of hand.
In clement weather there would be 10-20 cars parked with plenty of space between cars. People brought picnic baskets, dogs, kids. No problems. Of course it won’t continue because . . . reasons.
I’d think drinking and driving would be the main issue. But even with laws against it, serving ready to drink cocktails in a to-go cup will only encourage it.
To be clear, I’m not saying that they should or shouldn’t be allowed to serve cocktails to go, I’m just saying that doing so may make drinking and driving worse and certainly won’t make it better.
Having said that, one could certainly make the argument that this is no different than going to the supermarket and buying beer or canned/bottled cocktails out of their cooler. My thought process as I started typing this was that a to-go drink would be too tempting for a lot of people to wait until they got to their destination. But now that I think about it more, is it any more tempting than opening up an ice cold White Claw or Cutwater Margarita?
My points, exactly. I’ve been to several “touristy” cities where walking with a to-go cup is no big deal. But I’m not even talking about drinking while walking - just getting a drink to go even if you can’t drink it in public. Atlantic City recently allowed to-go and drinking it while on the Boardwalk with some restrictions. The cup must be marked with the name of the establishment that sold it is the main one. Makes sense to me. I have seen people with their own booze sitting on the boardwalk and having a little party and getting a bit out of control and I’m sure the ordinance doesn’t allow that. The cops seem to keep things reasonable, though.
Taxes? Location something is consumed is a factor. I mean grocery store items aren’t charged the same taxes as an equivalent sit down restaurant for the same food. In Wisconsin it’s illegal for a bar owner to walk to a liquor store and stock up for his establishment.
ETA. Though I guess this is a non factor for people who are willing to pay full price for a bar item and just want to walk outside while doing it.
I think the issue is that it’s easier to prove a sealed bottle or can has been opened than a take-out container. And people aren’t likely to put a cup with a plastic lid in the trunk like you can with sealed containers. So take-out containers make it difficult to enforce open carry/driving laws.
Edit: I have no real opinion about what SHOULD be legal in this regard, just offering up why take-out container would be more problematic for law enforcement than sealed retail containers.
New York’s booze-to-go policy ended yesterday.
Restaurant owners are unhappy. Liquor store owners are happy. Very predictable, of course, and it’s just a battle of lobbyists.
The issue here wasn’t so much drinking and driving. The to-go policy was intended to help restaurants make a bit more money during the period when they were restricted to a fraction of capacity, by selling alcohol to go, and delivering drinks with delivery orders. That’s over, since restaurants are now permitted to open at full capacity.
Public drinking* has become a huge problem at certain locations in NYC (see the kerfuffle over Washington Square lately), and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the NYPD has essentially taken the last year off, thus allowing the problem to get completely out of hand, but I don’t think it has much to do with the to-go booze issue.
I don’t have strong feelings about this one way or the other. If I have to pick a side, I’ll come down in favor of ending the to-go policy.
* ETA: I suppose “public drinking” and booze-to-go aren’t the problem, in and of themselves. Huge, rowdy, sometimes violent crowds are the problem, and the problem is exacerbated by lots of people drinking in those crowds, with alcohol being sold illegally (regardless of regulations affecting legal sellers) by unlicensed vendors. But, as I said, this doesn’t have much to do with the to-go booze issue.
This is normally a remnant from prohibition and the three tier structure that was instituted to replace it. Basically, you can make booze, you can distribute booze, or you can sell booze to the public and each tier must go through the other two. So your bar can only buy through a distributer and not from someone on the same tier as them. This system give way to much control to the distributors and they are typically where the money is at in three tier states. One of the reasons I was against the way California legalized marijuana was they instituted a three tier structure too.
I’ve really enjoyed to-go cocktails during covid and we’ve had margaritas with everyone of our takeout Mexican meals during COVID. While I was tempted to take a sip on the way home I didn’t mainly because my wife would have been pissed at me. Luckily, Colorado has generally been one of the saner states when it comes to liquor laws and they just extended our to go cocktail law until 2025 at which point I’d assume it becomes permanent.
Are you sure about that? There’s various sales on different things (including different rates for different items), but, so far as I know, they don’t much change based on the establishment the end user is buying them from. I could be wrong though. I’ve only looked at the sales tax code as it applies to me. It’s, what, 150? 200? pages and even the 20 or so pages I need to read make me want to cry, it gets really confusing, really quickly.
That’s been slightly backed off. IIRC, a restaurant/bar/store can now buy a certain amount of alcohol from a retailer and resell it at their establishment (like $500/yr or something along those lines). However, I think the reasoning for that was because owners needed a way to get through a busy weekend or pick up a single bottle of something their vendors only sell by the case.
The laws in WI allowing bars to sell to-go drinks do specify that they have to be closed in such a way that you can’t drink the beverage without breaking some type of tamper evident seal. I imagine many other states have a similar law. However, I think even the lawmakers admitted most restaurants were likely just going to use a piece of tape.
Honestly, I’m with both of J_P’s feelings here. I remember visiting my mom and step-father in Texas many, many years ago. They lived in a dry county, so one a week or so he’s drive 15-20 miles to the county line, go through the drive through liquor mart, and get booze for a week. He was a (traditional?) 2-3 beer a day guy, and yes, he absolutely cracked one open on the drive home. My mother strongly complained, and so in the future, it was just him, not myself or brother in the car, but I suspect the circumstances are worse with the cocktails. I mean, a freshly mixed drink is going to be at it’s best after being prepared (especially chilled ones), rather than 10+ minutes later when you to your home/destination/etc.
Now, whether this is all projection or not I’m of course not in a position to evaluate. I strongly suspect that in the case of New York, which seems to be the heart of the current debate, is experiencing a widely-reported increase in violent crime, and they want to avoid the exact scenario the @Saintly_Loser mentioned -
How would the liquor store, or more importantly, law enforcement, know that the customer was buying for resale, instead of personal use?
Stores that sell alcohol are required, by law, it keep the bills on hand for IIRC 3 years after they’ve been paid. And, “on hand” means on the premises. So your local chain supermarket sends a copy of the bill to corporate, but keeps another copy in the building. In fact, many liquor wholesalers give you two copies of the bill for just that reason.
In any case, this isn’t something the police are likely to randomly pick up on. It’s more likely to get turned up in an inspection or someone tipping them off. For example, a wholesaler telling them that you always have fresh stock of [brand of booze] but haven’t bought it from them in years.
In any case, if you get caught doing that you’d be at risk of losing you license.
Also, keep in mind that, at least in Wisconsin, any specific type of alcoholic beverage can only be sold in a given area by one wholesaler. So, if I want to sell Bacardi in my store, of all the wholesalers that I can buy from, only one of them will have Bacardi and only one will have Smirnoff and only one will have Miller etc. So it’s not like you could claim you were getting it [legally] from someone else.
In Texas, all bottles at a bar must have a sticker on them that shows where they were purchased. TABC goes into bars and looks at every bottle to make sure it has a sticker. Likewise, when the bottle is empty, the bartended scratches through the number on the sticker before sticking the bottle in the recycling. Because it’s illegal to have a stickered bottle in your home for personal use.
Thanks. I learned something new.
For a couple of years now in Pennsylvania you’ve been able to buy alcoholic slushees in bars and beer distributors as a to-go drink. They’re fairly potent; 5-8% ABV, in big cups like a large coke.
Conforming to the open container laws was tricky. The cup is given to you with a straw, and a sticker is placed over the straw hole. If you get pulled over and your sticker is intact, you’re cool. The sticker is one time use, so you cannot remove it and then re-stick it.
I bought one when I was a passenger in a friend’s car. He explained the sticker thing. After about fifteen seconds contemplation, I removed the lid, took a huge swig, then replaced the lid.