Nope. But there is a walk-in humidor.
I’m fairly certain liquor stores want to avoid losing their liquor license. And different townships, cities, counties, and states have different laws/ordinances. So, before someone starts beefing at the cashier on the store’s seemingly ridiculous rules, I think they should check on the local laws first. And remember, the cashier probably isn’t the one who makes the rules. He’s just the one who’ll get fired, fined, and/or arrested if he doesn’t follow them.
Well, in California, which I realize is a different state than where the OP lives, they sell wine and liquor in grocery stores. Even the top end stuff. Someone it still isn’t a common occurrence for kids to break bottles or take a swig.
No one below b’nei mitzvah age was invited to my wedding, and we even had an other-location activity for the couple of out-of-town kids who had to come in with their parents.
Some people, who were local, brought their kids anyway.
I don’t recall ever having been kicked out of a liquor store as a kid. My own kid has bought candy at a liquor store and not had any problems. Hell, last year I accompanied my daughter and several teenage friends of hers to BevMo and bought them all Faygo (it’s one of the few places in SoCal that sells it), and no one said anything until I went to pay. The cashier didn’t like having all those kids around though, and asked them to wait outside while I paid for their sodas and a tiny bottle of tequila for myself (hey, Mom needs a treat too :D).
I went into a liquor store in Oklahoma with an 8-month-old baby in my arms. The manager said nobody under 21 was allowed and he would be happy to have an employee hold my child outside the door while I shopped.
I was only intending to buy it so I could go to a club and turn it over and have them sell it to me again, glass by glass. At that point I reconsidered.
Oklahoma used to make it a real pain to drink liquor. And yet, quite a lot of it is drunk in Oklahoma.
Seattle has some weird liquor laws, too. I went there with my kid (same kid as above, 11 years later) and there was some magical invisible line–with the kid, we could sit there, but we couldn’t sit here, because liquor laws. I, however, was allowed to order a drink in either place. I could see no difference at all in the places. The bar was not visible from the first seat I picked nor the one we were later ushered to.
In Ohio, regular grocery stores like Kroger do tastings. Somehow they manage to do this with packed stores full of kids.
I would go out of my way to shop there!
Where is here?
They are still common in Maine. I bought a sixer on Monday in Holden held together by a sealife killer.
A bar I go to has a restaurant liquor license. So, kids can technically be there with an adult. But it is still a grimy bar. It’s pretty pathetic when an adult comes in, puts their six year old at a table with a can of coke, and then goes to the bar and drinks as many Budweisers as they can, as quickly as possible.
A few years ago, Spec’s got hit with an expensive legal problem. Formely seedy Washington Avenue was turning into a destination spot, with restaurants, clubs & shops. Spec’s opened a nice new store with a very large food section; they were a few feet too close to an elementary school (blocks away) but the City gave them a waiver.
For a little while, Washington became quite the hotspot–neighbors on back streets had some difficulties with drunk douchebags daring to park in front of their houses (on streets maintained by the City). So a local woman sued to have the Illegal Spec’s closed down–because it was an easy target. Spec’s lost a bunch of money. For a while, there was no free liquor tasting even at the Big Store!
So I’m fine with Spec’s setting their own rules. In Texas, beer & wine are sold in grocery stores, convenience stores & other places. (Unless you have the misfortune to live in a dry area.) And Houston has many sources for interesting groceries. If you must have that pint of Popov, your neighborhood liquor store will probably let you bring the kids.
I agree that liquor laws are often silly. Here, you can buy any sort of alcoholic drink after 10AM on a Sunday morning–in restaurants or cafes serving food. But you can’t pick up a bottle of wine of a 6-pack of St Arnold’s at the grocery store until noon.
Not sure if somebody posted this already, but this happened in Ontario:
TL;DR - Mom digging in purse for wallet, 17-year-old son lifts case of beer onto the counter to help out his mom, LCBO refuses to sell it to her.
They sell wine and beer in grocery stores here to. Teenagers trying to steal the alcohol is a major headache for every grocery store manager I have known. And little kids do get into it (along with everything else in the grocery store) if the staff isn’t vigilant. There’s a lot of good reasons to ban kids from most stores, but unfortunately, too many hyper-sensitive parents to enforce such policies.
That’s really weird… the Spec’s by me (the Dallas flagship) has one of those carts with the little race-car for small kids attached. They’ve NEVER given me a hard time about taking my son in, or about me making race car sounds as we navigate the aisles. Of course, he’s barely 3 years old, so maybe that has something to do with it.
I could see them not wanting 17 year olds coming in, with or without their parents. The potential for pilferage is way too high. But 3 year olds? Why not?
The liquor stores around here all have a “No One Under 21 Allowed” sign posted, but they all allow me in with my kids. I asked at one place and they said it was to keep unaccompanied minors out of the store. Makes sense, as liquor stores around here can only sell wine and liquor and literally nothing else (no cigarettes, ice, corkscrews, anything).
Indiana also has the weird law that you can’t sell “mixers” in a liquor store – I think you can buy pre-made mixes for margaritas or whatever, but you can’t buy a 2-liter bottle of Coke. Thus, pretty much every single liquor store in Indiana has a Coke or Pepsi vending machine right outside the door.
Carryout alcohol sales are also prohibited on Sundays in Indiana, with the exception of breweries/brewpubs that can do growler fills and the like. Restaurants and bars, however, can be open…so liquor stores are closed on Sundays, and you can’t buy a sixer or a bottle of liquor at a grocery store (the whole aisle is usually blocked off), but you can go to a bar and get drunk and drive home…
For another kind of strange liquor selling law, in Mexico alcohol sales are forbidden on Election Day. I was in Cancun one Election Day and all the stores had their liquor all roped off. The tourists were very disappointed.
This would only be weird if there were no other grocery stores you could go to. It’s not as if you need to get your groceries from Specs.
But yes, the whole idea is weird. I mean, I can understand not selling booze to kids, but they’re not going to get a contact high just from being in a bottlestore, FFS.
Plenty of areas of the United States have similar laws. When I studied Texas history at the university level I read accounts of how Election Day would often turn into a holiday in many areas and toward the end of the day would often result in a lot of fighting and civil disruption (think cowboys rioting). Some counties banned liquor sales on the actual Election Day in attempt to reduce this problem. Of course, plenty of people simply bought their booze the day before.
Many smaller shops in the U.K. have restrictions on children. Usually on the lines of no more than one or two children at any one time. It’s to cut down on theft.
I don’t have children, so this hasn’t been on my radar – I hadn’t realized how much things have changed. (When I go to visit family/friends back in FL, you can buy beer/wine in the grocery store and obviously there are children there with parents.)
But it seems very strange. I remember accompanying my mom into the liquor store as a kid. If anything will make alcohol boring, it’s watching your mom buy bourbon, which to a child tastes like terrible cough medicine.
And I also remember my mom and grandmother rubbing whiskey on childrens’ gums when they were getting teeth (baby or adult). Apparently that’ll land you in trouble with DCF these days.