Most unreal law re alcohol (IMO) – in CT, all packies close at 8 PM!
My parents toured a bourbon distillary in KY and were disapointed to discover that it was in a dry county so they couldn’t taste the bourbon the way they tasted wine in the Finger Lakes area of NY. Further investigation into touring bourbon distillaries has yeilded the information that nowhere in KY can the distillary provide free samples of bourbon. (Although, if you went to one that isn’t in a dry county, you might be able to buy bourbon there. My parents don’t drink much alcohol at all, so weren’t interested in buying any, but were curious as to what it tastes like).
Speaking of dry areas, I used to live in Audubon, NJ. The township was dry, but every adjacent town was wet. That meant the perimiter of Audubon was surrounded with bars and liquor stores.
Similarly, NJ sells beer, wine, and hard alcohol in the same store, and at reasonable prices. PA has state liquor stores and beer distributors (only sells beer by the case or keg). This means there’s a steady stream of Philadelphians going over the bridge to NJ to buy beer&booze, then coming back into the state with it. On paper this is illegal, but the cops seldom enforce this law.
voguevixen: was the problem with buying vanilla on Sunday related to a liquor law, or was it a more general “blue law”?
Where I grew up there was a blue law in effect at the time which prohibited the sale of “nonessential” items on Sundays (the way I had it explained to me, you could buy a can of beans but not a canopener). I could believe that under a similar law, vanilla extract might be considered “nonessential”.
Melatonin, I presume you’re referring to Moscow, Russia? When were you there? In St. Petersburg (1995-96) hard spirits were available pretty much anywhere you chose to look. As was beer…
All Hail Unca Cecil, or the next best thing available!
I was there in 97, which I gather was pretty much the high point of the Post-Soviet era. No problem whatsoever finding alcohol of any sort, for the most part. There were at least two stores on the MSU campus alone selling all variety of spirits. Also, you could go down to the firemen’s quarters and buy wine and beer if it was late and you were too lazy to go all the way to the Metro market.
Sometime in the middle of 97, I think, some sort of law pertaining to vodka was passed, and it became illegal to sell it out of any place of business having no doors. Or something like that. It just suddenly seemed that one had to actually go to a store of some sort to purchase it.
I didn’t really have any problem in Peter, either. Course, there’s something in my magnetic field that attracts alcohol. . .
Here’s something to really make you drool: I found that, if you know where to go, there are some places that actually have refrigerators and you can get a (no, GASP!) …cold… beer in the summer.
Torq – No, they told her she couldn’t buy it because it had alcohol in it…thus foiling her big plans for a vanilla kegger, I suppose!
That probably was to kill the kiosk business - they probably meant doors for customer access. The street in front of the SPbGU dorm I lived in had three or four kiosks that sold hard booze, among other things - all close by. Student heaven! L
All Hail Unca Cecil, or the next best thing available!
There’s one on High Street, between Hudson and Dodridge/Ackerman. If you hit the White Castle, you’ve gone about a block too far. This is within walking distance of my place, so it’s not too incredibly far for you.
It gets better; we in Quebec are quite pleased to be the only province in Canada where beer and wine can be gotten at the dépanneur (convenience store). I don’t drink, but I still enjoy the distinction.
I moved from Ohio to Nevada in the 1980’s and I marveled at the practice of selling hard liquor in supermarkets, drug stores, and convenience stores. You can actually buy a bottle of vodka 24 hours a day. Of course if you go to a casino, sit at a slot machine, put money in, a cocktail waitress will come by and give you free drinks. When I lived in Ohio, they didn’t sell alcohol on Sundays–only 3.2 beer. (I don’t know if they still do this.)
–Gail
What if the Hokey-Pokey is really what it’s all about?
No liquor on Sunday in Ohio, still. When I grew up in Michigan I had heard that Michigan laws were restrictive (the state liquor board decides which brands may be sold!). Michigan is wide open compared to Ohio. Liquor is sold only in liquor stores (which were about 50% state outlets until the privatization push a few years ago); no sales from groceries or drug stores; no purchases using credit cards; no Sunday sales. Wine can be sold on Sunday (after 1:00 p.m.) only if approved by the local voting district. (My county had no Sunday wine sales at all for the first eight years I lived here. One supermarket chain was able to secure wine sales and the competing chain in a different voting district had to beg their voters for the same rights for a year.) Beer sales are more open. Credit cards may be used for beer and wine.
Tom~
I like this thread.
Cities, counties and the state regulate alcohol sales in Texas. For most of the state you can buy beer & wine at stores from 7 AM until midnight Monday through Friday, 7 AM Saturday until 1 AM Sunday and noon until midnight Sunday. You can’t buy booze at a bar and leave with it. Hard liquor sales terminate at 9 PM Monday through Saturday and don’t happen on Sunday, at liquor stores. You can always go to a bar or restaurant and get hard liquor on Sunday. The bars close @ 2 AM all week long (I guess it’s a good sign that I don’t know when they open).
My college girlfriend was from a dry county in East Texas; that meant the locals had to make a 50-mile trip on weekend evenings to the next county. I think this arrangement probably promoted drinking and driving, but at least you knew which lane to keep an eye on.
I drove a hack while going to college in Austin and soon learned that a several of the other all-night cabbies kept a six-pack or two in the fridge at home to accommodate late night requests. There was also a moonshiner in East Austin who would, for $5, provide a gallon jug of vaguely purple “wine” in the wee hours. I tried to avoid her patrons.
I’m guessing the crazy quilt of laws is a product of a combination of local regulation, the rheostat school of social engineering (same place we got our strategy for Vietnam and Kosovo) and somebody’s financial interests. Banning alcohol in your city doesn’t accomplish a lot if it’s available a few miles away. Other regulations seem to based on the idea that if we make it twice as hard to get it, maybe they’ll only drink half as much. In reality I think people just adapt to a certain degree of difficulty and if it becomes too difficult to comply with the law, large numbers just start ignoring the law. In Texas we had, until the early 90’s, a three tier system wherein producers, distributors and retailers were supposed to be independent, but there was an exception that allowed anybody who just happened to decide to open a marine life theme park of so many acres in Bexar County to be both a producer and retailer. Some sharpies at Anheuser-Busch saw the opportunity and, voila, Sea World – where you can scope out a dolphin while chugging your Bud.
We’ve also just (effective in September) cranked the DWI blood alcohol threshold down to .08% and (unsure on this) I read a news report that it will also become illegal to have even a closed container in the passenger compartment. I guess that means it goes in the trunk for the ride home from the store (hatchback owners, …engine compartment?). When this decade started it was still legal to consume alcohol while you drove and it was not unusual to see people driving with a beer sitting on the dashboard. Don’t think that I have a cavalier attitude about DWI; I’m a steady (or unsteady, as the case may be) patron of taxicabs for everyone’s benefit.
Just a few blocks from where I live here in Houston (Z & M: sorry you didn’t like it; I love the place – 2nd favorite place to drink in Texas is Austin) there was for years a speakeasy. It was a house on a residential street w/a little (just like in the movies) peephole and you weren’t getting in unless you were with somebody the bartender knew. It did not close @ 2 AM.
New Orleans is, I think, still a 24 hour town. Decades ago an acquaintance’ band moved there when they got a steady gig playing the 6 AM to 10 AM slot at a bar – I’ve wondered what that crowd is like.
Sign on a liquor store, Valdez, Alaska, 1986: Hours: 7 AM to 5 AM
Since tomorrow is Memorial Day, I should note that national holidays seem to be optional for liquor stores; most are closed but not all.
Enjoy the holiday, folks!
Beatle: New Orleans was still a 24 hour town last time I lived there (3 years ago). In fact, I lived about 2 blocks away from Igor’s, wich is a bar that had been open 24 hours of every single day since the year I was born (1963). They don’t even close down for the hurricanes (they can’t close, there are no locks on the doors!).
It was about 4 years ago that they made the drive-through daiquiri places shut down, though. Before that, you could drive up to a window and buy a daiquiri in a styrofoam cup with a straw in it. What a town.
Now I live in a dry county in KY. Huge culture shock. Now I have to drive about 5 miles into the next county to buy beer or whiskey. I went into a pizza place when I first got here, and without thinking, I ordered a pizza and a pitcher of beer. The waitress acted like I was crazy. She actually seemed to be shocked, as if I had asked her to strip naked or something. Wierd.
On Sunday, I have to drive to Louisville (about 30 miles). Louisville stops selling beer between the hours of 4-6 a.m. on Sunday. Try to figure out that kind of logic.
-Monte
Good! Always a good thing to like where you live. Have to admit I had a very bad intro to Houston. I dated a guy who lived in Pasedena & around Hobby, so most of what I saw was the scumpit sections of town.
And our Gulf Coast office is near Gunspoint mall.
Mastery is not perfection but a journey, and the true master must be willing to try and fail and try again
w-a-y back there torq posted:
I remember hearing that the Jack Daniels distillery is in a “dry” county; they can make it there, but they can’t serve it.
–Yes. I did an interview with the head distiller of JD and that question came up.
He said that the population of that whole county wouldn’t be able to support one liquor store. So they (the Jack Daniel people) never saw any reason to politic for repeal.
Yikes! Where do you people live, Russia? No wait… Russia had laxer laws. Anyway, here in good ole Chicago suburbia, I can get about any sort of alcohol from the grocery store, liquor store, drug store, or bar. Except for them not selling after midnight and having to wait until noon on a Sunday to buy alcohol, it’s pretty much restriction free.
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
zyada
Every large city has its better and worse parts. If you were splitting most of your time here between Pasadena/Hobby and Greeenspoint, you’re obviously an I-45 veteran as well. None of the above are on my “show the visitors” list.
I’m sure people find much to enjoy in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, but my perception is colored by my experience. I go there often but all I ever do there is fly into Love, rent a car, battle the traffic to get to someone’s office, do whatever I have to as quickly as possible so I can race back to Love and try to get near the front of the herd at Gate 4 and go home. On the subject of the metroplex, and trying to stay vaguely on thread, I’ll note that when I do have to stay overnight the plethora of smaller municipalities w/their own liquor laws makes it an unknown for an out-of-towner whether any particular restaurant will sell you a drink w/dinner (sometimes you have to buy a membership in their club; I’m a proud member of a JoJo’s somewhere up there).
Regards
Sorry to respond to a thread that’s been dormant, but I was out of town for a week, and it’s taking forever to get caught up. Anyway, I liked the state-store setup in Pennsylvania. The stores only sold liquor, and they always had guards. I seem to remember that they were armed, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I liked that they were so tight, because anyplace that sells liquor is going to have a lot of money in the till, and I was secure in the knowledge that they almost certainly wouldn’t be held up. The staff was polite and friendly, too, because they only had to ring up your liquor purchase, not juggle that with punching out lottery tickets and changing the expiration dates on lunch meat.
While I was living there, some bluenose was petitioning to get Allegheny County to bar the sale of twelve-packs of beer (by beer distributors, which were a separate entity), on the grounds that twelves were easier to carry, and people would be more inclined to get one, carry it to a park or someplace public, drink it, and then do a crime. I thought that was a huge exercise in futility. If one is truly an alcoholic, portability is not an issue. Plus which, I think restriction to cases or kegs only would have inspired people to stockpile, using the logic that transporting two or three cases wasn’t that much more difficult than one, if you had a car or a couple of pals, and you might as well get all three at once, thinking you could make them last for a few weeks…then saying, “Hey, we’ve got plenty here…”
Anyway, here in LA, I only buy liquor at grocery stores or at stores that specialize in liquor (plus mixers and snax). The selection is better, but my real objection to convenience stores selling liquor is that, if I have to make a cigarette run in the evening, I would prefer not to stand in line with the kind of people who buy malt liquor at 11:30.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
When I managed hotels, I traveled to many different states. I seem to recall WVa selling everything in their grocery stores (Huntington). In Atlanta, liquor stores were free enterprise. In Columbus, OH, you couldn’t get any alcohol on Sundays. In Augusta, GA it was the same unless you bought it from a restaurant/bar and after 1pm. I always loved Florida with their 2-for-1 Happy Hours!
But, here in the HQ of the Baptists (& Jesse Helms) liquor prices are set by the state but it is up to the counties to set hours for the liquor stores and to determine whether they are “dry” or “wet”. We can buy beer & wine after 1pm on Sundays from the grocery/convenient stores but not liquor.
We still have some counties with Blue Laws - you can buy the diaper but you can not buy the safety pin (because it is “hardware”).
I just adapt to my surroundings and always make sure I have plenty on hand!