People who live in states with no blue laws (let alone foreigners) won’t understand what a big deal this is, but get a load of this - in city council elections today, Columbia voted 71% in favor of a referendum to allow Sunday beer and wine sales.
Holy fucking Jesus on a crutch. Sanity! Rationalism! Enlightenment! Do you realize that in Lexington County they string up tape across half the Wal-Mart at midnight on Saturday and don’t take it down until 1 on Sunday? And you can’t buy clothes and things? Because Jesus doesn’t like it?
I was scared as hell that people who can’t remember to buy beer on Saturday wouldn’t remember to vote in an election that generally gets something like a 15% turnout, but mirabile dictu! It has happened!
I feel so… free and light. Truly, a new day has come!
So, what you mean is that the referendum to lift the blue law passed with 71%, right? Why do you say “straight ticket”? Were there several referendums, or perhaps the city council was taking sides?
I’d be curious to know what kind of argument the opposition put up, and why it took so long for the referendum to even get on the ballot.
My understanding is that these laws are circumvented by folks just driving to the next jurisdiction. Or they can just buy their beer on Saturday. I don’t understand what they expect to accomplish with such laws, other than making Wal-mart quieter on Sunday.
Wow, wish I knew how to get that on the state ballot here! In New Mexico, the law is a bit less strict; the tape comes down at noon. At least it’s not like Colorado or Oklahoma, though, where if you buy beer at a grocery store, it’s 3.2% booze, and you can’t buy liquor or real beer anywhere but the state sponsored liquor stores, which are closed all day Sunday.
No, it was just a joke. Just beer and wine, no liquor, but “straight ticket liquor” is funny to me.
You CAN’T drive to the next jurisdiction, dear. Columbia is the most cosmopolitan place around. (You do have to remember not to go to Lexington between midnight on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, though.) As far as I know, we’re the only ones who are going to have Sunday sales.
I’ll quote a story from the newspaper last week about the congestion at the liquor store on Saturday night:
That’s your good old fashioned Southern hypocrisy, there. Buy your booze on Saturday and you’re a good upstanding person; buy it on Sunday and you’re going right to hell.
ETA - the mayor says we may have Sunday sales as soon as the end of the month. Not everybody will do it, of course - places like to have a day they’re not open, but I assume grocery stores and such are tired of putting up signs and turning off the lights in the beer aisle.
I always think of the song, “On a cool Colorado night, there’s something I forgot… It’s hard to get drunk on three point two (repeat) yeah it’s expensive to get drunk on three point two.”
And apparently the airhead thinks that people went to church because the liquor store was closed. Oh well, liquor store closed, nothing to do, let’s go to church. Why would she even want those people in her church?
You know, the statistic I hear is that 2/3s of Arkansas’ counties are dry. Not only no liquor on Sundays, but NO LIQUOR EVER. I live in a town of 10,000 people and two colleges. Dry county surrounded by dry counties on all sides. We drive 30 minutes to the liquor store. And I just saw a new tidbit on that Wikipedia entry. Apparently our supermarkets can only sell wine that’s made in Arkansas. That explains why there are only ever two dusty bottles on the shelf.
I should mention that Columbia (in my lifetime, at any rate) isn’t dry on Sundays - you can order alcohol at restaurants that have the appropriate license, which not all do, and the bars are open. You just can’t buy it to take it home to drink in the privacy of your own castle.
That started circa 1988. Also, hardware and clothing type things couldn’t be sold. Period. I think it was 1986 when that was changed. A downtown merchant (in that same building where “Eddie’s” used to be, and the service recruiters have offices) owned a clothing store called “The Reflex.” He defied the Blue Laws by opening on Sundays, and daring to sell. . . CLOTHES! He kept getting arrested, and it became a PR nightmare for “the officials.” That, IMO, was a large part of getting the Blue Laws revised, and by extension, on-premise alcohol consumption licenses for bars and restaurants.
Dedicated, as in stores that are dedicated only to selling liquor. I worked in a wine shop in Colorado a long time ago; the only thing that could be sold there was wine, beer, and liquor. No chips, no lime to go with that Corona, no Cokes, etc.
Other states allow varying levels of this. The Holy Grail of this is the laws I know exist in Michigan, New Mexico, and California (there may be others, but I don’t know them) - just about any store can apply for a liquor license and sell, meaning that grocery stores can sell beer, wine, and alcohol.
Michigan even has party stores - that is, small privately owned corner stores that sell a small selection of beer/wine/liquor as well as sodas, chips, candy, milk, etc. Think of it as a privately owned 7-11 with alcohol.
Could you not buy it at restaurants before then? (I wasn’t really aware of liquor laws at age 8.) I’ve lived for the summer in a Georgia county where you couldn’t buy a beer at a restaurant on Sunday, and if you forgot and ordered one they looked at you like you’d gotten up and taken a shit on the table.
Then again, I have family in Pennsylvania, so I know how weird it gets. I’ve never been anywhere else where I was forced to go into a sleazy bar just to buy a beer to take home!
So Beverages and More would have a hard time in Colorado - they’d have to drop all of that “More” from the stores.
I guess I’ve had a sheltered life. I faintly recall when the liquor section of the grocery store in Illinois was off-limits from something like midnight to noon on Sunday, but out here, it’s anything goes. Whenever, wherever, whatever.
In other words, if you want something besides three two beer, you have to go somewhere that only sells booze. Upon preview, what Athena said.
I’m not sure how strict it is, since I don’t live there, but I do remember the Durango ruggers telling us they’d drive down to Farmington to buy booze because it was easier and cheaper. I also remember buying or getting a coozie from the liquor store there, maybe it was supposed to be free and they charged me. :smack:
I think the “which may only operate in one location” part means you can’t have two liquor stores with the same name/owner, but I’m not sure.
I’ve never been anywhere else where I was forced to go into a sleazy bar just to buy a beer to take home!