I’ve heard of:
ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) Stores (southern US?, or state specific?)
State Stores (state run liquor stores in New Hampshire)
The Packy (package stores, a New England term)
Class 6 Stores (on US military bases)
The Off License (in the UK, I have no idea what that means)
In the UK, pubs, bars and many restaurants are “on-licensed” premises. They are licensed to serve alcohol for consumption on (and sometimes off) the premises. Off-licenses are licensed to sell packaged alcohol for consumption off the premises.
In North Carolina they are called ABC stores. They don’t sell anything except liquor and more recently a few mixers. I have seen many disappointed New Yorkers who thought that it stood for Alcohol Beer and Cigarettes.
In my family we have always called it the Sin Store. Not that it has ever stopped us from going there.
Bruce, they SELL the boxes in SC? Here they pile them up in the lobby and you can go take as many as you want. They make the best moving boxes.
Before privatization, Alberta Liquor Control Board was in charge of all liquor/beer/wine sales in Alberta. We called it the ALCB. After, we just called it the liquor store. In Ontario, there are government-run Beer Store and liquor stores. Can’t remember the name for the liquor stores offhand.
I most commonly use “liquor store.” On occasion, I will call it the “packy,” being from New England and all. When attending school in Vermont, I found that many people there called it the “Bevvy,” but that may have been just the local one, called the Beverage Warehouse.
In PA, Liquor Stores used to be called State Stores, since the state controlled them. Now they’re just Liquor Stores or Wine and Spirit Stores. You can’t buy beer there, though. You have to go to a distributor for cases. Several types of places sell six packs (144 oz. or so limit to carry out–2 six packs) and soon, we may be able to make our beer purchases in grocery stores.