Here in Massachusetts, it was only in the last few years that grocery stores were allowed to sell booze of any type. It started with beer (and wine I would assume) being sold at convenience stores and now a grocery store can get a full license to sell beer, wine and hard liquor. Generally it’s still restricted as to the hours they can sell - not before noon on Sunday is often specified, but I"m not sure if that’s a statewide legal restriction to stores that also sell food.
It’s up to the individual town to decide if they will sell the liquor licenses and of what type. Most towns have a restriction on the number of licenses available in the different categories. It’s still odd for me now to go to a regular store and see all the booze available. When I was younger, and more apt to be looking to buy alcohol, you’d have to head to the “packy” - i.e. package store/liquor store.
Way back in my younger years 3.2% beer could be purchased by people 18yrs or older. To buy beer with more than 3.2% you had to be 21 or older.
I believe it was in the early 80s that the age requirement for 3.2 beer was grandfathered up to 21 with all other beers. Although, I have no cite to support this aside from my personal memory.
It will sell…eventually. It’s not like it goes bad or anything. But after it reaches a certain age, it will get remaindered, then returned to the distributor. Most distributors have some arrangement or another for “return for credit” on stuff that just doesn’t move.
For as long as I can recall beer has been available in privately operated vendors in Manitoba. Typically, though not always located at hotels, these vendors sell “top 10” brand beers - Molson, Labatt, Sleemans etc.
There are a few privately operated wine boutiques selling nothing but wine.
The caveat to running a private liquor retail establishment in Manitoba is that they must purchase their product from the government operated Manitoba Liquor Control Commission (colloquially, the LC). The MLCC regulates what products the retailers are able to purchase. The problem is that the MLCC is also a beer and wine retailer in its own right (and the exclusive retailer for spirits). As such it is a competitor with the private retailers over whom it controls inventory and price. The MLCC prevents specialty retailers access to the full product list to which the MLCC has and indeed sells itself in government run liquor stores.
The system has been in place for a number of years and it does work. The typical consumer of imported and premium beer would not normally patronize a beer vendor. The beer vendors would not want to stock the relatively obscure imported labels. The MLCC does stock and sell a reasonably good selection of imported beer and does a good job at growing this segment of the beer market. Even though they’re limited product-wise, private wine stores label themselves as boutique type experiences. They are very customer service oriented with knowledgeable, helpful staff and they are typically located near specialty high-end grocery stores. Patrons are willing to pay premium prices for the high end service they receive even though they could visit the MLCC and get a wider range of wine for equal or lower prices.
Just for gits and shiggles, here’s an interesting point from the State of Utah, which sells 3.2 beer in stores, but everything else in State Liquor Stores:
3.2 beer by weight is equal to 4% alchol by volume.
Most beers sold outside of Utah (such as Nevada) are between 4.5 and 5% alcohol by volume.
If you could separate the ethyl alchol from a 12 oz. 5% beer, and from a 12 oz. 3.2% (by weight) beer, the ethyl alcohol difference would be 12/100 of an ounce.
So much for my wrong conclusion that Utah has wimpy beer.
Just to continue with the sampling from around the country, in New Jersey you have to have a liquor license to sell any kind of alcohol. A few grocery stores have one. Most do not because they are insanely expensive here. Usually from 500k up in built up areas.
Here, generally, booze is booze. From ultra-light 2%alc/vol beer through up to ultra strong rectified spirit from Poland, you will need a liquor licence to sell the stuff. Alcohol is alcohol here as far as the laws go - you can either sell it or you can’t, and you can be either old enough to drink all types or none. That said, some liquor stores specialise in certain things - if you see one called “Suburb Name Cellars”, it’ll likely specialise in wine (but they’d probably have a basic selection of spirits and beer too).
You can get a hotelier’s licence, which you’d need for a pub so you can sell alcohol for consumption on the premises and also so you can sell it for consumption elsewhere, or a bottle shop licence (what the Brits call an “off licence”) so you can sell it for consumption elsewhere.
Although I have been told of examples othrwise (on this very board), I have never seen a supermarket sell alcohol in such a way that you take it through the checkout along with your bread and eggs. The suprmarkets will have a separate liquor department, and you’ll need to leave the main supermarket area and go through to the booze section and complete another transaction. These supermarkets have simply gotten themselves a bottle shop licence, the same as free-standing liquor stores have. Many supermarkets don’t sell alcohol at all.
Hotelier-type licences can also be obtained for restaurants (many that don’t have these will still be allowed to operate as BYO etstablishments) or for things like railroad dining cars.
As for the OP, I suspect one of the main reasons there are a lot of these places is that they are a good little business. If I were to run a shop, I’d like it to be a liquor store, because:
it’s relatively recession-proof. In the good times, folks spend up, and in the lean times, they still usually find the cash to drown their sorrows.
it’s clean, and there is no mess or wastage (like with a butcher shop or a bakery)
there is no getting up at 3am to prepare (like the bakery)
there are no kids or teenagers hanging out
there tends to be few drunks (unlike a bar)
paperwork is relatively simple as you only have a handful of suppliers (unlike, say, a supermarket or general store).
As I pointed out in an earlier thread, in NSW it is illegal for a supermarket to sell alcohol other than in the manner you suggest. However I think in the ACT the average suburban shop can just sell it through the grocery checkout. Again I can think of one in nearby Queanbeyan NSW that is just how you describe - all within the one property but cordoned off with a separate checkout.
I live in Chicago and I like to drink. I can buy some booze at the local Jewel and Dominick’s, but the stuff I really like I can’t get except at places like Sam’s, Binny’s, and some local liquor stores with a good selection. Since you’ve never been to a liquor store, it may seem to you like that groceries have a sizeable selection, but they don’t. There’s a lot of booze in the world. Dominick’s and Jewel’s reliably carry only two single malt scotches: Glenfiddich and Glenlivet. You may find a couple more, but I’ve never seen more than four or five single malts at a grocery, and they’re almost always entry-level single malts. To give you perspective, Sam’s has, I would guess, at least one hundred different single malts. What is the entire liquor section at a typical grocery is the scotch section (or just part of the scotch section) at Sam’s.
Plus, the prices are better for almost everything at Sam’s and Binny’s.
Here in Pennsylvania, the only place you can buy liquor is in a “state store”, which is a state run liquor store. You can’t even buy beer in a super market. Beer can be purchased at specially licensed privately owned (as opposed to state owned) distributors.
For me, it’s always seemed strange when I go to another state and see liquor in a supermarket.
In PA? I wasn’t aware of that. I don’t really follow the issue since I don’t drink but I do know that a lot of people want to completely do away with the state store system.
I’m pretty sure it was a few years later in my neck of the woods. However, the NMDA trumped all state laws in 1984
I grew up in Southern Indiana Bordering Ohio…we used to drive across the state line to purchase Beer in the Drive-through package stores.
I can’t imagine why PA takes a legal product like alcohol, and makes it so damned inconvenient to buy.
Also, WV has licensed liquor stores and the liquor can be in grocery stores if that store is a licensed liquor store. You can scan the liquor with your bread and eggs.
Florida apparantly has a different law, as most grocery stores carry liquor, but you have to leave the main part of the store and go to the special liquor area and check out seperately. Again, that makes no sense to me, and seems like an additional PITA for store owners and customers…
Here in my corner of Texas, you can’t buy any alcohol in any store, and in order to drink alcohol in a club you must be a member. There are two very (pop no more than 100) small towns within driving distance, that sell alcohol. Even these towns have only one place to buy and there are two stores. Each has side by side stores, one will sell beer and wine, the other hard liquor, beer and wine.
In nearby Rockwall county, to order a beer in a restaurant, you must not only show ID (which I agree with) the ID number must be recorded with your name. Not sure why other than to see who the alcoholics in Rockwall are.
Not to hijack or anything, but when will these communities realize that the restrictive laws do nothing to prevent alcohol abuse, but only increase the risk of DUI’s?
They’re trying. The bill to privatize the state stores is going nowhere in this session. But if Sheetz and Wegman’s prevail in their court cases against the beer distributor mafia, beer in grocery stores could become a reality sooner rather than later.
