I live in Texas, which is relevant because I think this behavior has to do with obeying state law, but I can’t quite figure it out.
I’ve noticed on several occasions that when the bartender pours the last of the booze–can’t be sure if it’s only hard liquor or wine too–before throwing the empty bottle out, he or she takes a corkscrew or knife and cuts the label slightly. Why?
It’s so they (or anyone else, for that matter) can’t refill the bottle with a cheaper version of the same kind of booze and re-sell it as new for a higher price.
I worked as a busboy in Virginia and the bartender where I worked would scrape off a piece of the tax stamp and stick in on a sheet of paper. He then gave this back to the state government when purchasing his next batch of booze (in VA, the government runs the liquor stores).
This is also why you can’t ‘marry’ (i.e. combine) liquor (at least in Wisconsin and California), although you are allowed to marry wine without constraint (though this is done only in the cheapest of places).
Stranger
In California a place that serves liquor has to buy from a distributor licensed to sell to such places and can’t just head to the liquor store or the Safeway to restock, even in a sudden shortage of booze when it’s raining drunks. It’s a tax thing.
I know for a fact that in Texas, liquor stores aren’t government run, so that can’t be it, but they could be scraping off the tax stamp. I never thought of that.
As far as the purpose, though, I’m confused. What if I, as a proprietor, bought a brand new bottle of Cuervo (for example), but accidentally scratched the label. Would I have to throw it out and take the loss for my clumsiness? Or is the scratch made on the tax stamp such that it could not be made by accident?
I don’t doubt that you’re all on the right track, but it seems like a pretty flimsy way to guarantee against fraud.
I doubt it’s mandated, it could be more of an industry practice to reassure customers. Like not opening a bottle of wine until you get it to the table in a restaurant.
Not exactly an answer to your question, but along somewhat similar lines, I live in TX too and was amazed when a restaurant bartender told me recently that the amount of liquor they serve is so closely tracked by management that the partially full bottles behind the bar are regularly weighed (taking into account typical empty bottle weights for each kind of liquor, of course) along with every spent bottle being accounted for; and if there is an overage of more than, say, 15% between the amount of alcohol poured and the number of drinks sold they’re in big trouble.
Umm, why?
But that just sounds like inventory control, i.e. preventing your bartenders from giving away too much or too little liquor.
You would be surprised how little they tell a 16 year old bus boy at the average place. I asked the bartender what she was doing, she said they had to save the tax stickers for the ABC guy (in VA, that’s Alcohol Beverage Control). I then went to college, got married, got a dog and pretty much forgot about it until this thread came along.
Cite? 
They are destroying the tax stamp. This is done to prevent the bottle of high-end booze being refilled with swill.
From the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code:
§ 28.09. INVALIDATION OF STAMP. (a) A holder of a mixed
beverage permit or any person employed by the holder who empties a
bottle containing distilled spirits on which the tax prescribed in
Section 201.03 of this code has been paid, shall immediately after
emptying the bottle invalidate the identification stamp on the
bottle in the manner prescribed by rule or regulation of the
commission or administrator.
For your example I don’t think a scratch would invalidate a tax stamp. When the bartenders scrape one off they really go at it.
I haven’t lived in Texas for about 15 years, and they were doing it back then. It was explained to me that if the inspector came in and checked the garbage, and if all of the liquor bottle labels (or stamps) in the trash weren’t scratched they’d get in trouble as the bottle could potentially be reused.
Scratching a tax stamp or label I get. But saving it and returning it I don’t.
What prevents them from filling it with swill before they destroy the tax stamp?
Well nothing, other than the threat of huge fines if caught. Notice that the law says immediately. Bartenders will pour out the last of a bottle and not even set it down before they reach for the scraper. The TABC (on a fairly regular basis from what I hear) sends undercover people into bars and restaurants looking for violations. I’ve seen bartenders fired for not checking ID, serving an obviously inebriated customer and other violations - all of them nailed by an undercover TABC agent.
There is also a separate law covering substitution of liquor. It is a violation to serve something other than what the customer asks for, unless the customer agrees to the change. That law states that every instance is a violation. So if you put some cheap vodka in the Chopin bottle every drink you sell will earn you a nice fat fine if you get caught.
Overall the margins on liquor are so high that this really isn’t much of an issue. But the threat of the TABC coming by and going through your garbage (looking for a bunch of no-tax-stamp cheap bottles) keeps bars and restaurants in line.
I don’t understand how destroying the tax stamp prevents you from refilling the bottle. If I own a tavern and have a bottle of Smirnoff and a bottle of Grey Goose there is nothing stopping me from pouring the cheap stuff into the expensive bottle after closing time.
Assuming you are scratching the bottles you empty during business hours to avoid detection from undercover authorities, then you only have bottles with some liquor left in them. I guess, assuming everybody were in cahoots or working alone, you could pour out what was left in the more expensive, partially-full liquor bottles and refill them cheaper booze.
This has a couple of problems:
All good points Hung Mung but easily invalidated and none prevented refilling. No, there must be another reason for destroying the stamp. Pilot141 cited the Texas law and even it didn’t say why. :dubious: Very strange.