Why aren't there liquor stores on every corner in my neck of the woods?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I just got back from a 5,800 mile two week camping trip of nine states: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. It's nine including my home state, Texas.

So. Besides being blown away by the beauty and starkness of the geographical features of this amazing land, I was surprised by something else: frigging liquor stores everywhere.

Now, I'm not much of a drinker, admittedly. But I do like the odd glass of wine or cold glass of Bailey's from time to time. And I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Here is the liquor access I have: I can go ten miles down the interstate and buy beer and wine coolers, or I can go into Ft. Worth or Dallas proper to buy actual wine and/or liquor. Nowhere else.

It's just what I was used to. So imagine my surprise when I walked into grocery stores in the American West and saw Wild Turkey and Crown Royal next to the produce section. My friend and I stood staring and a bit slack-jawed. Imagine my surprise when, somewhere in Wyoming or Colorado or South Dakota (sorry, it got to be a blur after a while), I saw DISCOUNT LIQUORS!!! across from a daycare center. We laughed. And felt a bit jealous, even for every now and then drinkers.

So we got to talking about it. Why the HELL isn't it that way here, too? The old Bible Belt thing? What the f___ is up? Those other places haven't seem to have burst into flames. They haven't seem to have fallen off into some dark sinful abyss of horridly shocking crime and death because of easy access to hard spirits.

So what gives? I'm a little pissed off here.

(I guess that's what I get for getting out and seeing how other people live. Up next: how many Kerry stickers I saw and who knew a peace symbol on a t-shirt would be offensive? Especially when the shirt is really an ad for a crab restaurant?)

[IronLionZion]

1. at least you Texans can have open containers

I think. Laws are different in each state. PA has zero private liquor stores. They're all state run. And beer can only be bought at a "beer distributor" and by the case only.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

8. No

I believe we have open container laws. So there goes that! LOL! Oh my that whole beer thing sounds sucky. Majorly sucky.

[MadHound]

2. It is your fault! Following the law of supply and demand,

You would see that you aren't drinking enough! If you drank like a whale, you too could have a discount liquor store right next door:evilgrin:

No, it probably has more to due with strange liquor laws. While they have become a little more homogenous lately, there are still vast differences in how states sell alcohol.

[NC_Nurse]

3. NC is like that

we actually have state-owned ABC stores (Alcoholic Beverage Control) and some dry counties still as well. It's so cool to visit other states where they have even Drive-thru liquor stores! The first time I saw that I cracked up!!!:D

So what's all this about crabs?;-)

[jmowreader]

25. Don't forget Preacher's Walls!

A Preacher's Wall is a concrete-block hallway leading from the back parking lot of an ABC store to the side entrance. If (1) you're afraid the preacher will see you buying booze or (2) you are the preacher and you're afraid your congregation will see you buying it, you use the Preacher's Wall entrance.

There's an old ABC store that has a preacher's wall on Hope Mills Road, but when preacher's walls fell out of favor, the ABC Board sold it to a plumber to use as his store.

Another humorous one: In my old job we had a secretary for a while who was a fundamentalist. A fundamentalist who just happened to enjoy making rum cakes. She'd bring them to church and even the fundie preacher raved over them. She'd serve them to her friends, and every Friday we had two or three at the shop. She didn't drink, I know that for sure, but she did like making her rum cakes. So about once a month she'd ask me to go to the ABC store and pick her up a half-gallon of rum--yes, she really made that many rum cakes. I mean, you'd think there would be a connect there--you make rum cakes in that quantity, you need a shitload of rum in the house. But nooo...pastor, I really don't partake in the evil spirit, I just buy this as a cooking ingredient.

[supernova]

4. We have state owned liquor stores in NC

One of the cushy perk positions you can get here if your party is in power is to get on the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board. Every county has one.

I don't know how they started out. It might have been a way to repeal prohibition and still keep control of liquor revenues. Still busting was a way of life here for the ATF until at least the early 70s.

[AngryAmish]

5. From the front of my building

I can touch 5 places that sell booze in less than 1 minute.

1 bar, 2 corner-grocery types w/ big liquor sections, and 2 restuarants.

[MadHound]

10. Oh that's nothing, go to the Bible Belt section of Southern Mo

Where in a town of 500, you can find ten churches, six liquor store, and four bars, all within a square mile.

Gotta love those Bible Belt fundies, they take their God and alcohol veeerrrry seriously.

[T Town Jake]

18. Yep, I've been through some of those...

...small Missouri towns, and it's precisely like that. What was it H. L. Mencken said about the Bible Belt? Something to the effect that it was the only region where people stumbled knee-walking drunk to the polls to vote for Prohibition? LOL.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

6. Guess I'll go on and end the suspense about the shirt

It was a seriously pack light trip. So I took four shirts. One of them is from a chain of restaurants called Joe's Crab Shack. I don't know where they originate from, but there are quite a few in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Anywho, the shirt is colorfully tie-dyed and there is a HUGE peace symbol on the front. In tiny letters under the peace symbol, it says "Joe's Crab Shack". Then on the back in giant letters: PEACE LOVE AND CRABS! I love the shirt. I wear it constantly. Now, around here, everyone knows the Joe's shirts. So no one bats an eye.

But every time I wore it on this trip, I got a LOT of reaction. It caught me off-guard since I never think about what the shirt has on it. I got so many dirty looks (after they pointedly looked at the peace symbol), I wanted to start that "if I had a dollar" thing because I was running a bit low on funds. But I also got a lot of thumbs up and smiles and one group of Hispanic kids in Zion National Park in Utah started shouting, clapping and yelling "LA PAZ!!!" at me when they saw it. Wow. I just smiled back and waved. Wonder what they'd think if they knew it was a crab restaurant ad. Only in America, huh?

But for the others, I wanted to ask them what the hell is wrong with the idea of peace? I mean, what an odd thing to seemingly be AGAINST. Against peace? Dirty looks for peace? WTF?

[doctorbombeigh]

7. It's religious.

Goes back to Prohibition (may even pre-date it, dunno). I lived in Texas myself for a few years and have experienced "dry counties" and "private bars/clubs" that Texans deal with as a matter of course.

It's just the usual retarded conservative response to reality.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

9. Yes I live in a dry area

there was a guy out in front of my local grocery the other day (Albertson's) with a petition to get beer and wine coolers sold in grocery stores (imagine the heart attacks if it was asking for hard stuff in grocery stores, my God) and I signed it.

The crazy thing is, you can go to any restaurant with a liquor license in my area and get served hard liquor by the drink, but you can't buy it for your own home consumption without going into Dallas or Ft. Worth.

My friend told me it is religious/conservative based.

But hell, I live in a city where one school board member wants to have a teacher fired because she is pregnant and not married. The horrors. Fortunately we have a Dem/liberal super and mostly Dem rest of the board who basically told her to shut up and keep her nose out of everyone's business.

[Don_G]

11. You Run Across That When You Travel

State run liquor stores, dry counties, private clubs, odd laws and such.

Here, in Kentucky, most of the distilleries that produce Bourbon are in dry counties and probably derived from Elijah Craid...a Baptist preacher credited with the discovery of the Bourbon process here.

Then again, you could feed booze to a Moose in Fairbanks, Alaska and get locked up.

It seems that a bar owmer there had a pet....

[SheilaT]

12. Every state

has peculiar liquor laws. If you've lived in one state your whole life, you may well just think your state is normal, but it's not. No state is.

The two most important things to remember about various liquor laws is that they all came about as a result of prohibition, and each state depends on alcohol for a lot of revenue. Most of the cost of booze in most (maybe all) states is state taxes, and the states want to protect that revenue at all cost. Which is why they limit how much you can home brew, and maybe get all exercised if they think you're bringing in too much from a lower-taxed place.

[maxsolomon]

13. its prohibition & american gutlessness

no pol wants to be the one to 'go soft' on liquor, or drugs, or crime. kowtowing to the women's temperance league or something. eventually someone has to have the sac to stand up to the liquor control boards. regulating alcohol sales is for scandinavians!

here in washington state, we have state liquor stores (very common), whereas california sells in the grocery. we have taverns where you can't get a mixed drink, just beer & wine, whereas in ohio no one even understand this concept. at least the washington legislature FINALLY got rid of the absurd '50% of your reciepts have to be food if you want to serve a drink' rule.

its the longevity of alcohol blue laws that makes me think marijuana will be illegal till i die (approximately 2050).

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

ROFL, "approximately 2050"

Yeah, it really made me wonder, too. I started talking to my friend about how we can get this fixed here and she just sighed a lot. We are both native Texans and liberals.

[pss]

14. I remember driving 'cross country...

... and crossing from Nevada into Wyoming on I80, the first thing I noticed was a drive-thru Liquor/Ammo/Fireworks stand. You don't even have to get out of the damn car for your case of beer, Wild Turkey, .22 rounds and M-80's. My first thought was "Damn, these people know how to have fun!"

Drive-thru Liquor/Ammo/Fireworks.

Just thought it was worth repeating...

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

15. I saw places like that and it made me laugh too

Wyoming even FELT conservative, btw.

I love the fact that if you have a knife/sword store, you apparently have to sell tobacco and pipes there, too. Odd.

The one thing that cracked us up the most was when we saw an Albertson's in Jackson Hole Wyoming that read "Albertsons The Liquor Store". They have apparently contracted with an independent liquor store and it is in the same building as the Alberstons. Our Albertsons sells mixers. Period. So now we always say "Albertsons, The Liquor Store". Irony is fun.

[LizW]

28. Some things just go together

Knives/swords and pipes/tobacco/cigars sounds about right. :)

In Orange Beach, Alabama, there's a knife and Christmas store. I've never been inside, but it's gotta be interesting.

When I was little, all the state-run liquor stores in Alabama had the fronts painted dark green, and no advertising, just the seal of Alabama on the front door. I remember my dad talking about "going to the green-front store."

That was just for liquor. Beer was sold more widely, although it was illegal, for some reason, to advertise it on signs as "beer". The signs always said "Beverages". When you crossed the county line from a dry county to a wet one, the first beer joint was always called the "First Chance". On the other side of the sign, it was the "Last Chance". :D

[yvr girl]

16. Liquor in Canada

Canada has pretty strict liquor laws, and it's not a religious thing. When I was young, you could only buy liquor at government run liquor stores, which had 'bank-like hours.' Then they introduced 'Cold beer and wine stores.' That's still all we have. Hours of operation have increased though.

Liquor licenses can be a challenge to obtain as well. In fact, our Premier (like a governor) had to resign because he 'greased the wheels' for someone to get a liquor license who had 'helped' him to build a deck at his cabin.

In restaurants you can't order liquor without ordering food. Up to a few years ago, no liquor could be sold while the polls were open during a general election. (Bar, restaurant, store.)

[AngryAmish]

29. Yeah, Canadian liquor rules are pretty dumb

Some buddies of mine went over the border on a fishing trip. They pull over at 9 or 10 a.m. and ask a local where they could buy some booze for the trip. The guy looked at them like they had 10,000 heads and then concluded "You guys must be from the states."

In Chicago, you can buy booze from 7 am until 4 am (5 am on Saturdays.) Sunday no booze until noon.

[seabeyond]

17. amarillo, part dry part wet, lol i sh*t you not

confused me for the first decade i lived here not being much of a drinker myself. and no buying on sunday til 12. imagine my surprise shopping for an afternoon bbq and couldnt buy any beer. yup

and bettin as many alcoholics if not more........

dry areas have to purchase a membership card to buy booze in a restaraunt

[slackmaster]

19. Don't you have Iraqis there?

Almost every liquor store, Zippy Mart, and most of the pizza parlors in my 'hood are run by Chadeans from Iraq.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

22. Um

I guess we do have some people from the Middle East running convenience stores and stuff, but I don't know if they are Iraqi or not.

The guy working at the convenience store in Wichita Falls, TX was African-American and that was when I thought "THAT'S what's been weird: no African-Americans for thousands of miles! What's up with that?"

[fob]

20. Out here in Cali we have fast food places that sell beer.

Slackmaster in post 19, in San Diego can back me up, but when I lived near SD, there was a Mickey D's and a Taco Bell near SDSU that sold beer/cerveza! No liquor store required! The smaller and mom & pop food stands sell beer too.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

21. Oh yeah it was frigging everywhere, that's what made us so mad!

LOL! The KOA camp places sold beer in their little store. Convenience stores sold beer and wine every frigging place we went. It was amazing.

[RebelOne]

23. Well, I live in North Georgia

and there are lots of liquor stores here. I have two liquor discount warehouses within 5 miles of me. Only drawback is that you can't buy any alcohol on Sunday. Dumb blue laws. I'm a atheist, so I don't think that should apply to me.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Open One.

Sounds like a market niche.

Liquor, Shmicker. I live in Northern California, and I didn't even know that I had a medical marijuana dispensary right down the street from me, until the friggin DEA Vans surrounded the place.

[Democracy Died 2004]

26. Gerrys pizza in VA Beach used

to deliver beer and pizza.. Don't know if they still do but i thought that was great!

[bobbieinok]

27. in OK the state constantly voted dry

and then one governor started enforcing the liquor laws very strictly.....you could get liquor at the country clubs and other private clubs..... when the state raided them, the next election, the 'church vote' lost......and now we have private liquor stores

it was a big joke.... the Baptists and others would always start pontificating about liquor and it was ok with the 'big boys' to have a dry state.....it may be some of them made big money from bootlegging......

but strict constant total enforcement of the law changed the vote