Do they sell booze at your grocery store?

[Connonym]

For some reason the city I live in doesn't allow the sale of alcohol in the grocery store. They grocery store can sell it but it has to be in a part of the store with its own entrance and you have to buy it separate from your groceries. WTF is up with that? I live in WI, I should be able to buy beer with my cheerios. Any weird booze laws where you live?

[alphafemale]

1. Never, Never on a Sunday.

Georgia.

[Omphaloskepsis]

2. In oregon you can only buy the hard stuff at the state owned stores..

They are few and far between, and they close at 8pm.:banghead:

It is lame..

[Connonym]

3. socialized booze? OMG!

buncha commies up there in the Northwest! :-D Liquor stores close at 9 but they can sell bottles of beer and so forth in a bar until closing time. Not uncommon to see the neighborhood bar have a cooler full of 6-packs for sale.

[Omphaloskepsis]

4. I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear...

You can buy any beer at any store until 2:30AM.. And Bars will serve any beer or hard alcohol until 2:30am. You just can't buy bottles of hard alcohol after 8pm at the state run stores.

[Connonym]

5. no, no

you were clear, I was just being a smart ass. Sorry. I need to remember that you all can't see the "smart ass" warning label tattooed to my forehead.

[Maine-ah]

31. wow. can't do that up here.

alcohol sold on premiss must be consumed there. Our grocery stores just recently started selling booze. Rite Aid does too. The problem with giving the licenses to the "big boys" is that they decide what they carry, and if they don't have it, tough shit they won't order it for you. State still sets the pricing though.

[some guy]

6. not really

the groceries can sell 3.2 beer and wine coolers, that's all. And not between midnight Saturday and noon Sunday. I don't think any business can sell alcohol before noon Sunday. I'm not sure if stores can sell 3.2 beer after midnight at all, but maybe.

I really only drink whiskey, so I only go to liquor stores for alcohol, and try to go when the sun is up, so I have the best chance of them being open. :)

[Omphaloskepsis]

7. That is really strict.. How do people get laid in your state?

[some guy]

8. charm and good looks

:P

[Omphaloskepsis]

12. That explains things..

[Heidi]

9. Yep, but you can't buy aspirin, vitamins or get prescriptions filled.

:grr:

Here, in our part of Switzerland, anyway, you have to go to a separate pharmacy to get aspirin, vitamins, etc. Pharmacies here also have a monopoly on strange stuff like fabric dyes, citric acid (which I use for making elderberry blossom syrup) and certain health and beauty items (like the non-prescription Cliniderm facial scrub that I use). Bummer. x(

[last_texas_dem]

10. You can't buy it before noon on "the Sabbath"

in my state. Also, sales are restricted past, I think, midnight, but I think that's fairly common in most states. There are also more than a few "dry" counties remaining here in southeast TX, though I think that particular prohibitive effort is a lost cause. It just leads to a loss of business for counties that restrict alcohol sales while people drive over to the next county to stock up.

[Heidi]

11. At least your stores are open _some_ of the day on Sunday.

Even grocery stores are closed here on Sunday, but chiosks where you can get a few things like newspapers, tobacco, milk, bread, beer (but not gas for the car or grilling) are _sometimes_ open until noon Sundays. x(

[Omphaloskepsis]

13. Don't you guys have french fry vending machines?

That is awesome.. I think it was in Zürich that I saw one.. A bunch of french fries all over the street. Heathens.

[Heidi]

15. We have vending machines where you can get juice, chips, candy bars, etc.,

but not in little village. To even get to a vending machine, we'd have to drive or take public transportation to Locarno, across the lake. x(

[Breeze54]

14. No groceries sell booze here.

It's outlawed, just like sidewalks. :rofl:

And they close at 8 PM!!!!!! :wtf: And on Fridays at 10 PM!!

I want to move back to Nevada -- ASAP!!!

I can't believe the NANNY State crap here in Massacusetts!!

:grr:

Grow up MA! :P

[Heidi]

16. I grew up in Oklahoma, gf.

3.2 beer only, no "hard liquor" except in bottle clubs, etc. That's a harsh environment for a college student (as I recall) and I hope things have loosened up a bit. I remember when my mom, a first-grade teacher, wanted to buy a can of beer to make beer biscuits, but she had to drive to the next town to get it because she was afraid someone would see her and report her to the school board -- over one can of beer for beer biscuits. :wtf:

[Breeze54]

17. GLITCH!!

:rofl:

[Breeze54]

18. I hear you! It's insane!!

:grr:

We now have a lot in common! :P

[Omphaloskepsis]

19. Are you looking to adopt a 29 year old kid?

I do my own dishes.. This country is.. arrrggghhh.

[Heidi]

20. Are you litter-box trained?

I couldn't have you setting a poor example for The Wiley and Excellent Boy Cat Named Ginger. :P

:hug:

[Omphaloskepsis]

21. I pee on the floor sometimes.. But, I can fix your computer when it breaks.

[Heidi]

23. You're gonna have to do better than that.

CMW also fixes my computer when it breaks. :P

Are you the fix-it _before_ nagging, or fix-it _after_ nagging type? Your answer could be a dealbreaker. :rofl:

[Omphaloskepsis]

24. It might be a good idea to pay rent next month...

I don't think this European deal is going to go through.

[Heidi]

25. Paying rent sounds like a good plan.

But I'd still adopt you -- once you're past the peeing-on-the-floor stage. :hug:

[Omphaloskepsis]

26. Well, if you would accept the offer..

The next time I am Switzerland I will buy you and CMW a nice dinner. I can't promise that I won't pee on the floor. Pick a restaurant you don't plan on going back to.

[Heidi]

27. Hahahahahahaha!

:rofl: :spray:

Thanks for my first major giggle of the day, my future adopted son. :hug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Some towns in WI require a separate actual liquor store for liquor sales, also NYC

I grew up in one of those towns. When I went to college in Michigan, I was shocked to see liquor and beer in the aisles. Weird!

NYC also, until just 2004, banned sale of alcohol on Sundays. Now, I believe, the rule is that the liquor store has to close one day a week, but they can pick the day.

[seemunkee]

28. Hard alcohol at county run stores only.

I believe we are the only county in the country that runs its own liquor distrubution. All stores and restaurants must buy from the county distributor. I believe the rule is that only one branch of a chain can sell alcohol so the grocery stores do not have sell it.

[underpants]

29. County run? really, where?

Not state run?

[seemunkee]

32. Not state, county

Montgomery County, MD
DC burbs

[kwassa]

66. I bought booze from the Montgomery county store for years .....

before I realized it wasn't a state store.

I grew up in Ohio, where state hard liquor stores were the rule, not the exception.

and then I lived in California, where it is sold in the grocery, except between 2 - 5 am, as I recall.

[Inchworm]

30. No liquor at all in my county

unless its bootleg.

:hi:

[lynne]

33. Got to go to the liquor store in VA and they're closed on Sunday -

- only beer and wine on Sunday in grocery stores.

[bleedingheart]

34. No - In PA you buy your booze at the State Liquor store

and you buy your beer and pop at beer distributors...
Some folks hate it ...others could care less.

Only problem with it is the limited variety of wines at certain state stores....where I live you can't buy many high end wines...but go into the state stores in the more ritzy areas and you can find great wines at not so bad prices..

The key is to have a connection outside the state so you can have your chosen liquor transported in...

[dysfunctional press]

35. we used to live in evanston il- where the women's temperence movement started...

and the ice-cream sundae was invented as a non-alcoholic diversion.

they only recently allowed the grocery stores to carry package liquor.

[annonymous]

36. No booze of any kind in Maryland grocery stores

There are some independent groceries that sell beer and wine but they are few and far between. Chain stores are prohibited from selling any alcholic beverages.

[Bridget Burke]

37. You can buy beer & wine in Texas grocery stores

Unless they are in a dry county.

Or in a dry city.

Or in a dry former city. The Heights became part of Houston many years ago. But the borders of that extinct town still enclose a dry area. Leading to some nice BYOB restaurants & this one shining exception: www.shadeheights.com/shadeclub.html

Or it's before noon on Sunday--anywhere.

Hard liquor is only sold in liquor stores, open from 10 AM to 9 PM, Monday through Saturday. Of course, dry localities have no liquor stores. A cluster of liquor stores on the highway signals the line between a dry county & a wet one.

Some of those dry localities allow liquor by the drink in "clubs." In wet areas, some establishments only have beer & wine licenses. Like icehouses: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5522825

The Houston area is fairly relaxed, except for The Heights. But the Metroplex is a patchwork of dry/wet areas. Visitors, beware!

[Rhythm]

38. WV liquor laws

Times:
Beer/wine:
Monday-Saturday 7am-2am
Sunday 1pm-2am

Liquor:
Monday-Saturday 8am-2am
Sunday: NO SALES PERMITTED

Where:
Beer, wine, and hard spirits can be sold in grocery stores and convenience stores (as well as specialty 'liquor stores'), as long as the 'spirits' section is completely separate, and can be fully secured (think gated and locked) during hours when liquor is forbidden to be sold. Independent 'liquor stores' generally are only open during the times when hard spirits can be sold, even if they also sell beer/wine or other grocery items.

The times that this gets to be a pain here in Morgantown is on football game days (a noon kickoff for the Mountaineers can have people swarming the store at 6am, when it is against the law to sell them the beer they want for their tailgating) and Superbowl Sunday. It's also irritating to me personally, because i am not a beer-drinker, that i have to stay ahead of the game on the weekends, because otherwise i may end up quoting Captain Jack Sparrow on Sunday.
"But why is the rum gone?"

[GirlinContempt]

39. Hard liquor can only be bought from the

Manitoba Liquor Control Commission.
Beer, wine and coolers can be sold in separate establishments, but only establishments specifically for their sale (Beer vendor, wine market, etc)

[supernova]

40. NC - Wine and beer at the Grocery Store

every day. After 1PM on Sundays. (A remnant of ye olde Sunday Blue laws.)

For the hard stuff you go to the ABC store, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Yes, it's a state agency.

[tonkatoy57]

45. Ah, the ABC store

I grew up in N.C. at a time when there were lots of dry counties and it was forbidden to serve liquor by the drink in a restaurant. There were bars and clubs where you could buy beer and there were clubs you could "join" and bring a bottle in and they would sell set-ups, but it was impossible to go to a bar or restaurant and order a single drink of hard liquor or a bottle or glass of wine.

If my memory is correct, the impetus for allowing liquor by the drink was, as always, money. The furniture market in High Point was growing rapidly and becoming a "must attend" for people in that industry. Market attendees and buyers from NY and other parts of the country were incredulous that they couldn't go into the bar at their hotel or to a restaurant and have a drink. So, in order not to lose a multi-million dollar trade show, N.C. made the change to liquor by the drink.

When I left N.C. to go to grad school in MO I had never given much thought to liquor laws and N.C.'s solution to liquor sales. The ABC store and the related option in S.C., the Red Dot store (South Carolinias being of such delicate sensibilities that the word "liquor" could not even appear in a public place, had liquor stores identified with a huge red dot on the building or signage)were just a fact of life. The first day I was in MO I went to the drug store, turned down an aisle, and there was row after row of liquor. Went to the grocery and it was the same. I remember being amazed that you could buy liquor in a drug store or grocery. The funniest thing was that in my local drug store they sold generic liquor also. The bottles all had plain white labels with bright yellow printing. The bottles just said, Vodka or Gin or Bourbon.

[noshenanigans]

65. I had a similar experience..

When I moved to California from NC after college my mind was totally blown because you can walk into Ralph's here and buy Vodka. Even Rite-Aid! They even have sales. So weird to me.

When I go back home to visit my family in the NC mountains it's always frustrating because the ABC store is on the complete other end of the county as are the only places allowed to serve liquor by the drink (thus ensuring a steady stream of DUIs, I guess). Unless, of course, you're within a mile of the Blue Rudge Parkway, where you can magically buy beer again because it's federal land or something.

The irony is, I can still take you to about 3 stills and god knows how many meth labs in this holy dry land.

[tonkatoy57]

67. Let me guess?

Mountains of NC? Have to drive to another town?

Is this perhaps, HW 221, the highway of death between Blowing Rock and Boone?

[noshenanigans]

68. Damn you're good.

To be fair, my family's been there since way before the civil war, so I think of them as invading our turf rather than the other way around. I come from the "get off my land" South, not the Bible thumpin South, fortunately.

[deepthought42]

41. No, but then I do live in MD...

so it's always a shock when I go out of state and find beer & wine at gas stations/grocery stores. Here you have to go to a liquor store for that.

[Kali]

42. can't buy it till 10 on Sundays

used to be noon.

Stupid, illogical, and I believe an imposition of religion by government. Otherwise, yes you can buy it in the grocery store, using the same entrance and cashier as for your cheerios.

[guitar man]

43. Hell no

You can buy 3.2 beer but no booze in the grocery store,have to go to the liquor store for that. In fact, you can't buy cold 6 percent beer here at all, only hot at the liquor store.

Antiquated laws that the CRW screams and howls to keep in place here. Oklahoma is a fucking theocratic dictatorship!!

[skygazer]

44. I sell booze in my grocery store

That's my job - I run the liquor department. Still, I can kind of see the sense in those laws. I get a lot of theft in my department and my town isn't even a high-theft area. Stores in seedier neighborhoods have it a lot worse.

It's easier to keep track of customers and inventory when the booze is separate. Liquor and cigarettes are the two most commonly shoplifted items.

[Wcross]

46. Tennessee? BWAAAAAAHAAAAAAA

Only beer/wine coolers in the grocery stores. Of course we have some counties that are totally dry (No beer, no hard stuff NO NUTHIN except a bible maybe). I was SHOCKED when I walked into the Meijer's in Saginaw Michigan last year and saw the booze aisles! I was thinking what a wonderful idea it was!

[reyd reid reed]

47. The only kind of alcohol that they sell in the grocery stores here is 3.2 beer and things like

wine coolers. And liquor stores aren't open at all on Sundays or holidays. I don't know if you can buy the 3.2 stuff on Sundays, but I think you can, which makes no sense at all to me. Alcohol is alcohol, isn't it? So you just have to drink more of the 3.2 stuff to get the buzz, so what? Someone who really wants it can get it. If they want it that badly, all they've gotta do is buy Listerine.

[fizzgig]

56. you can get 3.2 on sunday

i've made many a sunday shitty beer run to king soopers or 7-11

[reyd reid reed]

60. That's what I thought...

still doesn't make any sense. I suppose, now that 18-year-olds can't buy the 3.2, they've gotta do something to get people to buy it. And selling it on Sundays is probably it. I wonder what Sunday sales look like, compared to the rest of the week.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

48. MI - some grocery stores carry liquor, most carry beer, wine.

Can't buy alcohol on Sundays before noon.

[mike_c]

49. yes-- all the grocery stores sell liquor here....

eom

[terrya]

50. They sell alcohol at the Dominick's near me

But CVS, also near me, no longer sells alcohol. Apparently, they had their liquor license taken away from the city. Sales of alcohol to minors.

[NewWaveChick1981]

51. Grocery stores here sell beer and wine.

Most grocery stores have a very nice setup for wine and the ones around here have a very large selection. Beer is usually nearby but with salty snacks near the coolers. Harder alcohol is sold at Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) stores controlled by the state. They're nice and clean and well-lit. A friend of ours came to visit from CT a while back and simply couldn't get over how nice things were at ABC stores and in the grocery stores. He was used to the skanky corner liquor stores where he comes from. :P

[LaraMN]

52. Yes, but only 3.2

Which is pointless.

:P

[Courtesy Flush]

53. No laws at all here

Well, that's not entirely true, but we're very alcohol friendly here. We even have drive-thru bars.

It was only pressure from the feds that got us to raise the drinking age from 18 to 21. I was drinking in bars at 17.

[tandot]

54. Yes, beer, wine, hard liquor. But we lived in OK years ago and we had to go

to a liquor store to by wine and other alcohol. The only thing they sold in grocery stores were beer and wine coolers.

I am so glad we moved to CA :)

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

55. I'm confused by Wisconsin's alcohol laws myself...

I've seen stores like the one you describe, then I find other stores in the same municipality that don't do it that way.

Beats me.

:shrug:

[AllegroRondo]

59. do they still allow you to drink under 21

if your parents buy it for you?

Loved that part about Wisconsin. :)

[Connonym]

63. I was at Summerfest last week

and my friends were letting their teenagers have beer. I *think* it's still legal but I'm not positive. Funny, I was just mentioning that to my 14 year old today and now she's anxious to try a margarita :)

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

69. I've never heard of that...

They were one of the last to raise their drinking age, but I didn't know any loopholes exist.

[Connonym]

62. seems to be a City of Waukesha thing

near as I can tell. It's like they WANT me to go to Brookfield to buy my groceries. The bastids.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

70. And what's this crap...

about not having package sales after 9:00 pm?! It's OK for me to get plastered in a bar at midnight and then drive, but I can't buy a six pack at the grocery store?

[Left Is Write]

57. Beer and wine only. Spirits are purchased at state-owned liquor stores.

[fizzgig]

58. 3.2 beer and wine coolers

at grocery stores and gas stations, seven days a week. liquor stores here are privately owned but must close at midnight and all day sunday. absolutely no sales between midnight and 5 a.m. (at stores, bars close is 2 a.m.)

[Critters2]

61. The city I live in covers parts of 2 townships

One township is dry, the other isn't. So, the grocery store at the north end of town carries booze. The one at the south end doesn't.

Now that I think about it, the Pik N Save in my dad's town (in Wisconsin) has it in a separate area, too. Is it a Wisconsin law?

[Connonym]

64. I think it's a city thing

maybe county but it's definitely not a state-wide thing. Hell, I think up North they probably give babies their first beer before they leave the delivery room!

[bigwillq]

71. Just beer

here in CT