I just moved to New England and was surprised to see the grocery aisle had a tarp over the beer section that said, “No beer after 8pm or on Sundays”. wtf. I just moved from Florida, state motto, " A great place to die" where I was able to buy beer any hour of the day, any day, almost everywhere. Why do some states limit the hours?
Wow, three questions regarding booze–are you sure you don’t have a problem here? 
My impression is that these are a hold-over from blue laws which prhibited a number of activities on the Sabbath. http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=0462B000
In NH (“live free or die”), hard liquor must be purchased from the State liquor store locations, which don’t stay open late.
Well, I just had the two rather stale beers on an empty stomach at 8 in the morning. What do you expect?
Welcome to Connecticut!
didn’t realize CT was so Bass (ale) Ackwards
Here in Ol’ Virginny, the ABC stores are few and far-between. There’s maybe one per 10 mi[sup]2[/sup] in urban areas. But they deal only in liquor; no beer or wine, which is left to grocery stores, nor mixers, which are also in the grocery stores.
In contrast, in Colorado (where I grew up), there’s seemed to be a liquor store on every corner. And they dealt with everything from NA beer to Everclear (which you need a prescription for in VA), bottle openers, sodas (pop 
), lottery tickets, and cigarettes.
8 pm? Oooh. You suffer SOOO much. You can’t buy it on Sundays at ALL in Indiana.
:wally
Read the OP, here in the Nutmeg state, Sundays and holidays are verbotten.
By the way KV, have you heard about our wonderful “last call” times?
Please, explain “last call”
In Finland you can’t buy alchol after 21 PM. This is to prevent “disturbances”. If we weren’t so placid there’d be some trouble because they don’t sell alcohol.
Most days, the bars legally serve their last drink at 1:00AM, Friday and Saturday nights go until 2:00 AM. And you can’t get a drink at a bar until 9:00 AM (11:00 AM on Sundays).
The generic term for such rules, at least here in the Soviet of Washington (a ‘30s term) is “blue laws,” but YMMV. They were originally created by the Guardians of the Public Morals[sup]TM[/sup] to keep the Sabbath pure, and to prevent the masses from succumbing to unseemly episodes of pleasure. In addition to no sales on Sunday (all drinks must be off the table by Saturday midnight), we had the following:
[ul]
[li]A woman could sit at the bar in a cocktail lounge, but not in a tavern;[/li][li]Taverns (but not cocktail lounges) must have the interior visible feom the street;[/li][li]Patrons were not allowed to move drinks. If you were playing pool, for example, and wished to move your beer back to the table, you would have to get the barmaid to do it for you (my personal favorite).[/li][/ul]
Fortunately, despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the GotPM, the citizenry repealed most of these regulations just in time for my 21st in 1968 (I turned 21 on a Sunday). My condolences to those still burdened; but remember, it could be worse: you could live in Utah (nice place, really, but no place for a drinkin’ soul).
Does this imply that some states don’t have this? Or just that KV doesn’t know about it?
Oh come now, things in Utah have loosened up incredibly. The servers in restaraunts can now legally ask you if you would like a drink.
I still remember my first trip to South Carolina. I asked for a gin and tonic and the waitress brought over a glass on tonic and ice along with a airline-size bottle of gin. She legally had to open it and pour it in front of me.
[knee jerk]Oh boo hoo. Can’t wait a few hours for beer?[/knee jerk]
I hear ya. I don’t understand the whole “no beer on Sunday” thing.
This is quickly going somewhere else from a GQ but I’d like to add that here a few decades ago only a waiter was allowed to move around with drinks. So when two groups of people sitting in separate tables wanted to share a table a waitress had to come and move the drinks.
Here in Minnesota, the liquor stores close around 8 p.m., and all day Sundays, but you can buy cheap, nasty, evil-smelling beer by the case 24x7 at the grocery stores. In other words, I can buy all the Bud, Michelob, or Mr. Beer I want any time of the day or night, but I can’t get a single bottle of anything worth drinking.
Guess they want me to drink by the caseload. Better get started…
KV, you must not have lived in Pinellas County FL. Here, we
can’t purchase alcohol (for carry-out) on Sunday until after 1pm, (“to encourage people to go to their house of worship” was the reasoning I heard). However, you can buy alcohol in a bar or restaurant. Strange law.
Actually you can’t buy alcohol in a rest. until after 1pm on sunday’s either in FL (hillsboro & pinellas).
In SC (spartenberg) all the alcohol is served out of airplane sized bottles since law prohibits serving double drinks. Weird stuff.
And, just FYI, whenever an attempt is made to repeal blue laws, it is oftentimes the liquor store lobbyists and car dealerships that oppose the repeal, on the grounds that closing Sundays lowers their costs, and, since the whole industry is closed that day, people will buy the same amounts they would, only on other days. Enough of a run-on sentence?