Alcohol Retailling

[TheFugitive]

One of the more involved topics in retail is the selling of alcoholic beverages.

At least here in Pennsylvania that has been a very complicated subject, due to the very high degree of state government regulation that has been applied since the end of prohibition.

The state basically took on a monopoly over liquor retailing.  If you wanted to buy scotch, bourbon or any spirit you basically had to go to a "State Store" that was run by the government.  These were drab, lifeless places that must have been a sample of what it was like to shop in Soviet Russia. Selections were very limited. State Stores were also the only place you could buy wine until sometime in the late 1970's, when they started allowing wineries that actually made wine in PA to sell it at their location.

You could not buy alcohol on Sundays.

Beer sales were limited to "Beer Distributors" where one could buy a full case, or bars and taverns where you could by a maximum of two six-packs at a time.  This all proved to be very inconvenient, and was hurting the state when it came to attracting conventions or major events.  But the State Store employees were unionized, and the operators of beer distributors defended their monopolies.  So any change was fought kicking and screaming.

The state still holds a monopoly on hard liquor sales, but the stores have been updated and expanded, with a much wider selection.  And many are now open Sundays. They are however still all government owned.  No one in private business still may sell a bottle of whisky in PA.

Wine and beer sales however have expanded into many new venues.  You can now buy them in many supermarkets, and the old beer distributors, in order to remain competitive, are now allowed to sell less than a full case at a time.

This was in stark contrast to when I lived in Michigan.  You could pretty much buy whatever you wanted there in nearly any store.  The only restriction was that individual counties had the option to ban sales on Sunday.

[Zayre88]

I especially love New Hampshire state-run liquor stores. They all used to be very bland and old but most of them have been renovated, expanded and upgraded. Prices are extra low and selection is good. Supermarkets have beer, some wines but no spirits.

In Maine, I think wine and spirits are only sold at stores with a license from the State Liquor and Lottery Commission. YOu can buy them at select stores like Walmart, Hannaford, Walgreens and Shaw's: https://www.maine.gov/dafs/bablo/active_liquor/Active_Agency_Liquor_Stores.htm

[shore72]

When I was growing up our county had a no-Sunday sales ordinance. I'm not sure when it went away; I only remember it because the one little store that sold liquor in our small town had a grate that went around that part of the store on Sunday. 2 of the neighboring counties still have, as far as I know, county-run liquor stores. They also had some pretty rough looking privately owned places that dealt only in beer & maybe wine. (Being a teetotaler myself, I mostly have to go by what I've seen/heard in passing). There was one place in particular, really just a tiny shack along the roadside, located in a rural minority community that had once been a migrant labor camp. It finally burnt to the ground.

Various restrictive liquor laws were a boon to places just across the county or state line. There was a tiny place located right up against the DE/MD border. One Sunday when I was a kid my father drove over there to get beer for a party we were having.

[giantsfan2016]

Here in Connecticut you can only buy beer in grocery stores. All other alcohol has to be bought at a liquor store or as a lot of them are called "package stores." The regulations used to be Monday-Saturday 8AM-8PM and not all on Sundays. It was expanded a couple times and it's now Monday-Saturday 8AM-10PM and 10AM-6PM on Sundays.

Those cry babies at the non-profit organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving fought against expanding the hours. If someone is going to be stupid and drive drunk, they're going to do it one way or another Besides restaurants and bars can serve alcohol until 1AM during the week and 2AM Fridays/Saturdays.

[TheFugitive]

Something that amazes me is that Mothers Against Drunk Driving continues to get involved
in issues like this, while at the same time they have been awfully quiet in states like Colorado
that have approved recreational marijuana use.

Whether you get hit by a drunk driver or a high driver, you're just as dead.
And the marijuana is much harder to test for.  There is no reliable roadside breathalyzer
test for that which I am aware of.

A few years ago we had a young mom here who was crossing the street killed by a
high driver.  He admitted smoking a joint just before getting behind the wheel.
She had her two children in a tandem stroller with her who miraculously were not hurt.

[deerwrecker2017]

One of the other changes regarding the sale of Wine and Distilled Spirits here in Pennsylvania is that anyone living in Pennsylvania can actually purchase Wine and Liquor online from the Fine Wine and Good Spirits website (Operated by the Liquor Control Board) and have it shipped directly to your house but it is only shipped via UPS Ground, A signature from someone 21 years of age or older is required (UPS calls it Adult Signature), And it will only get delivered to your home on Weekdays only (Monday through Friday excluding major Holidays) and yes I have made a few such online purchases (3 of them Total) before and was actually at home when they we're delivered and it was done before Midday (12:00 P.M.).

Other Notes - I have been inside the Fine Wine and Good Spirits store in South Park Shops (In Bethel Park) multiple times since it was remodeled (It was temporarily closed for the remodeling which included new shelving) and it does look good and is now Lottery retailer too.