AFAIK, California still lets you buy hard liquor in grocery stores. But the Upper Left Coast both have state licensed liquor stores for hard liquor and only beer and wine in grocery stores. So I guess we get left out of your secession. (Just as well, it didn’t work the last time.)
Ha. I can beat that. In Louisiana we have drive through liquor stores and drive through daquri (sp) stores. 
But the damn federal government made us raise the drinking age to 21.
In Colorado (before the mandatory 21 laws), you could get 3.2% beer and coolers at grocery and convenience stores. You could buy this weaker stuff at age 18.
For all else, you had to go to a liquor store. But, there are a bazillion liquor stores! When I was in college in Grand Junction, CO, I was only 21 for the last 7 months. I tried to make it a point to visit every liquor store in town. My very last day, I was at a 7-11 at 5th and North. I looked across the street, and saw a tiny little liquor store, Johnny’s Liquors. I had no cash, so I couldn’t make a purchase there. :(:(
Well, your statement that it’s the only one you’ve seen might still be correct, but I guess you haven’t seen California.
At Jewel/Osco in Illinois, you can also purchase any hard liquor/wine/beer/whatever and pay for it with your groceries. However, if you had a cashier who was under 21 years old, you had to wait until he could find someone over 21 to scan your alcohol.
I’m a deli clerk at a Publix in North Florida (voted #1 Grocery store in the country based on customer service).
While we don’t sell hard liquor, we sell beer and wine out the ass! It’s not exactly in a separate department though… wine is on the far wall, and beer is in the cooler case with the dairy products.
As far as a quick line, we hace 9 regular checkout lanes, 2 express lanes (10 items or less) and if you’re REALLY in a hurry, the customer service desk will check you out (5 Items or less).
In florida, you only have to be 18 to sell alcohol. However, a sizable portion of cashiers are 15, 16, and 17 years old. The loophole? There is always a “coordinator” present, and he/she is considered to be the person who is selling the items. Consequently, the coordinator must be 18 or older.
Speaking of buying mixed items, when I used to be a bagger, a man came through my line buying: 2 hot fried chicken deli dinners, a pack of cigars, a bottle of wine, a valentines card, a dozen roses, a package of strawberries, and whipped cream. I hope he had a good time!
I don’t have an answer to your question, but at the STAR Markets grocery stores in Boston, they still have a seperate section that sells liquor/beer and has its own register. You can also pay for your groceries there (as long as you don’t have an entire shopping cart), as long as you’re buying something with alcohol in it too.
Well, not quite the same. In AZ, they can actually sell hard liquor at the grocery store- as in, go in, get cold cuts, bread, peanut butter & a fifth of Jim Beam.
Here in TX, we can buy beer & wine at the grocery or convenience stores, but not hard liquor. You have to go to the specially licenced places for that.
Dry cities… damn, don’t get me started on that! Dumbest thing ever in Texas, especially in the DFW area, where there are a zillion dinky little towns.
Any other states besides Minnesota and Colorado who restrict grocery and convenience stores to 3.2 beer?
Any other states besides Minnesota where liquor stores are closed on holidays including forth of July?
[hijack]An urban legend has it that the makers of Pabst Blue Ribbon don’t make 3.2 beer but instead package their strong(er) beer as such and elect to pay a yearly fine to those states which require it. Anyone hear of this?[/hijack]
In PA, some restaurants sell beer, malt liquor, and wine coolers for take out, like the local pizza shop where I live. There’s a limit to how much alcohol you can purchase at one time, but most places don’t enforce this and even if they do, they’ll usually let you get around it by buying a certain amount, taking it outside to your car, then going back in and buying more. I’ve heard unless it’s a state store or distributor, any given business can’t sell alcohol by law unless they sell food. So, “six pack” shops have taken to putting out small displays of potato chips and such. I’m not sure if it’s true, but most six pack places I’ve been to offer chips or slim jims and the like. I’m assuming it varies depending on local laws. My girlfriend goes to college in VA, and the first time I walked into a 7-11 to see coolers full of six packs and forties I was somewhat confused.
A few new states:
NC: Beer and wine are on the shelves like any other food product, available for purchase just like anything else (except on Sundays). Liquor is available only from ABC stores or from Jedediah what lives back up yonder. Around Nag’s Head in the Outer Banks, they had a drive through liquor store (only sold beer, though, I think).
DC: Not really a state, but that’s a little OT. Anywho, at the Safeway on Capitol Hill, they still have a separate liquor counter selling beer, wine & liquor. It’s closed and locked on Sundays, but when its open & not busy, you can get the clerk to run a few food items for you to avoid the lines (at least if they know you they will). Also, though almost no one sells beer, wine or liquor on Sundays (makes me think there’s a law, but haven’t checked), there are a few convenience stores that will sell their beer anytime, including Sundays.
WI: Only visit my parents there, so not sure on whole range of rules, but the grocery stores generally have a liquor section with a separate checkout attached to the side of hte building.
SC: Again, only visited, never lived, so incomplete info, but bars there have airplane bottles instead of actual liquor bottles. Something to do with a loophole in the liquor law, which apparently limits dispensing from a big bottle.
IN: This predates my drinking days, but I can remember that anytime we went to Cincinnati (we lived near the border), Dad would come back via Kentucky with a trunkload of liquor. I think it was a money-saving trip rather than getting stuff that was unavailable in Indiana, Indiana must have had some price fixing thing going on.
I know this post is long already, but I just wanted to voice my annoyance with these restrictive liquor laws–what is the public policy promoted by limiting liquor consumption on Sunday nights to people who are well-organized, non-procrastinators? How many dry Sundays does a rummie have to endure before he learns to stock up on Saturday?
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I live in Illinois now and THANK GOD…you CAN buy liquor and bread at the grocery store - they’ll weigh your tomatoes, scan your milk, and scan the bottle of Jack all in one fell swoop. For all this ass-backward state’s flaws: God bless Illinois!
It’s a so-called “package state” where you aren’t allowed to sell booze by the drink. They have to sell you the sealed bottle, but there’s no law about what size bottles have to be. Hence the airline bottles. IIRC, they bring you the booze-less drink, and the bottle for you to mix yourself.
One of the sillier solutions to the “underage clerk can’t sell you liquor in the grocery store” problem (before the age of scanners): the kid rings up everthing, and enters the price for the liquor. Then the customer reaches over and presses one key the kid points to to enter the sale, so that they didn’t actually “sell” the customer the alcohol. Either Indiana or Illinois used to do this, IIRC.
sandyr:
Grocery stores sell all kinds of booze in California. When javaman said that the liquor counters disappeared, he meant that now liquor is just shelved and paid for at the regular checkout lanes like anything else in the store.
Well, thank God for the fruits and nuts legislators in California!
Semi-hijack: Doesn’t Texas allow you to drive with an open container, as long as you’re not drunk?
I second that. You people really need to adopt the New Orleans model. All! Liquor sales are available in convenience stores 24/7, you can buy walk-up beer or daiquiris at walk-up counters from the street. When I lived there, the drinking age was 18 although 16 or 17 was generally considered “close enough”.
Also, there was nothing wrong with drinking and driving although you were really expected to be responsible about it and not be too drunk to drive relatively safely.
The feds have tightened it up in the last few years by threatening to cut off highway funds but the basic idea still remains.
California has very few restrictions on liquor sales. There are two levels of licensing, the first lets you sell beer and wine, which is all most convinience stores and restaurants without bars have, and the second lets you sell any alcholic beverage, but not Everclear or other 190 proof plus beverages. There is not any day-of-the-week restriction, but you can’t sell between 2 AM and 6 AM in stores or bars or anywhere. I worked 11 PM to 8 AM at a 7-11, and 1:45 AM on Fridays and Saturdays was hell.
I was in Utah one time, and they wouldn’t let us get beer with our pizza on a Sunday, and they definitly wouldn’t sell any beer in stores. That is just screwy. Plan B (Pizza & Beer)knows no holy day!
I can confirm that in here California the liquor dept. is just another part of the store, and you take your beer, wine, or booze to the regular checkout line like any other products. AFAIK it’s always been that way.
One thing I wonder about, though, is the fact that virtually all grocery stores sell liquor, and all grocery stores have
a sign somewhere in front that says “LIQUOR”. As if we didn’t know it was available there.