The ability to buy alcohol from grocery stores is awesome (mixed drinks, vodka)

[Flight Simmer]

In Australia, alcohol isn't sold in grocery stores, but almost always there is a bottle shop next to the grocery store which is owned by the same company. You can usually walk straight into the bottle shop from the grocery store. We also have big box alcohol retailers and drive-thru bottle shops. Independent bottle shops can also be found in most shopping strips, malls, next to hotels and gaming venues etc. Most of them also have walk-in cool rooms.

Aldi also sells alcohol, but I think only Victoria allows this. You can buy Alcohol on Sundays and most public holidays from about 9am here and closing times vary from 6pm to about 11pm-midnight depending on the store and day of the week.

[Mayiask]

On my way to the store right now to catch the last day of sales!!

Wine and beer are both on sale, too! One stop...SWEET!


Man, I LOVE AMERICA!!!

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Flight Simmer

In Australia, alcohol isn't sold in grocery stores, but almost always there is a bottle shop next to the grocery store which is owned by the same company. You can usually walk straight into the bottle shop from the grocery store. We also have big box alcohol retailers and drive-thru bottle shops. Independent bottle shops can also be found in most shopping strips, malls, next to hotels and gaming venues etc. Most of them also have walk-in cool rooms.

Aldi also sells alcohol, but I think only Victoria allows this. You can buy Alcohol on Sundays and most public holidays from about 9am here and closing times vary from 6pm to about 11pm-midnight depending on the store and day of the week.

Aldo sells alcohol here but it depends on the individual state laws as to what they carry...if anything. Their Mexican beer is pretty good and so are some of their wines

[Flight Simmer]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Aldo sells alcohol here but it depends on the individual state laws as to what they carry...if anything. Their Mexican beer is pretty good and so are some of their wines

Same in Australia. Currently, only in Victoria is Aldi legally allowed to sell alcohol. At my local Aldi, they stock spirits, wine, beer and premix drinks. Their site even states that alcohol is available in Victoria only: http://aldi.com.au/au/html/product_range/2744_3620.htm

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Aldo sells alcohol here but it depends on the individual state laws as to what they carry...if anything. Their Mexican beer is pretty good and so are some of their wines

I am hoping when and if our county goes wet in Nov,Aldi's will start selling wine. They have some fairly decent ones but it isn't worth driving 35 miles to Joplin to get it.

Nita

[Flight Simmer]

Shops here also have specials on wine, usually you can buy 4 bottles or more for a 20% discount... I can buy my favourite sparkling wine.. 4 bottles for $16, or 6 bottles for $22. Keeewwwlll

[hugepossum]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Did you see the recent PBS series on Prohibition?...

Great post, thanks for the idea and I am going to go watch that.

Originally Posted by old_cold

A little silly, but whre we are in Florida , those supermarkets/drug stores that do sell liquor, it is sold in a small attachment to the main store where the beer and wine is.

Yes, Iowa had that law as well. It was an inconvenience for convenience store owners because they actually had to have a separate entrance (not accessible from inside the normal store) with a separate cash register, etc. That law was done away with during the last congressional session, I believe. Works for me.

Originally Posted by new2colo

...What makes CO's alcohol laws so crazy is that when Prohibition was repealed it was believed that alcohol served a medicinal purpose. Because of that provision, drug stores are technically allowed to sell all types of alcohol. However, the provision about only one outlet per chain being able to hold a liquor license comes back into play. So there is one Walgreens, one Rite Aid, and several mom and pop stores in Colorado that sell full strength beer, wine, and liquor. Also, several major grocery store chains have been able to "game" the system by licensing themselves as drug stores and being able to sell full strength beer and liquor. There is one Safeway, one King Soopers (Kroger), and one Target in the Denver area that are the only three stores in Colorado that you can buy liquor from. When Trader Joe's opens here next year they can only operate one store in the state that sells their "two buck chuck."

I moved to CO from NV where you can buy any type of alcohol 24/7 from anywhere that has a liquor license. Lawmakers here in CO claim that allowing grocery and convenience stores to sell full strength alcohol would put liquor stores out of business and hurt small businesses.

This is totally nuts. I had no idea even though I have rolled through Colorado several times.

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Draconian blue laws are so strange to me, having mostly lived in states with no real restrictions. I currently live in Missouri, which has some of the most lax liquor laws in the nation.

Go Missouri!

[hugepossum]

Originally Posted by coldPlay

I can relate to your post. I was in TX once and they will not sell booze until after 12 noon on Sunday, don't ever plan a champagne brunch unless you get all your stuff the day before, otherwise your guests will be disappointed. In some places in the south you actually have to bring a bottle to a restaurant if you want a dinner drink. One last thing, I think if they call it a package store it is government controlled - I think. Canada has that as well as the Sunday rule, so if you have to fly on a Sunday and like a drink before the flight, make sure you bring your own.

Pasadena, TX had a really weird law or loophole or something. They had these places called ice houses, which was basically someone's garage or something close. Alright, some of them were actual buildings, but they were never nice. You could only buy beer or soda at the bar, but they would let you bring your own liquor in. So you'd get these bikers who would bring in a giant 2 gallon bottle of whiskey and sit there and play pool all night and the owner would make nothing off them? Very strange to me. Also, you could smoke in those places but smoking usually wasn't allowed at other establishments.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hugepossum

Pasadena, TX had a really weird law or loophole or something. They had these places called ice houses, which was basically someone's garage or something close.

Most people don't know this, but the 7-Eleven chain started as icehouses. In the 20s in central Texas and south, people went into town to special shops to buy ice to keep food cold in the icebox - before rural Texas was electrified. The Southland Corp was one of the big 5 owners of ice plants in the San Antonio and Houston areas. Somebody got the idea that since they had ice and customers, they could sell chilled watermelons too. So they did. Then they added beverages, and other convenient items, which evolved into our modern convenience stores. The Kitchen Sisters did a cute story about it for NPR. Texas Icehouses Melt Away : NPR

Meanwhile, the term icehouses came to mean, in central Texas jargon, places that sold cold beer. And that tradition lives in the names of such current adult watering holes as Waterloo Icehouse (Waterloo was the original name of Austin.)

Originally Posted by hugepossum

Alright, some of them were actual buildings, but they were never nice. You could only buy beer or soda at the bar, but they would let you bring your own liquor in.

OK, sounds like you are describing a REAL outlaw biker bar. There are dry counties where you are allowed to BYOB into restaurants and clubs, but you cannot legally bring your own alcohol into a place that is licensed to sell alcohol.

Originally Posted by hugepossum

So you'd get these bikers who would bring in a giant 2 gallon bottle of whiskey and sit there and play pool all night and the owner would make nothing off them? Very strange to me. Also, you could smoke in those places but smoking usually wasn't allowed at other establishments.

Yep. Sounds to me like they were unlicensed. Probably called it a private club. Maybe paid off the local sheriff to look the other way.

[mrs.cool]

'sconnie here. Yes, you can't buy booze or beer after 9pm. Crazy, I know. I THINK we still have the "And not before noon on a Sunday!" rule too. I seem to remember there being a change to that brought up, 'cuz people needed to stock up on their way to the Packer tail-gate parties!! Don't remember if it happened... maybe a fellow Wisconsinite can chime in here.
The carding everyone no matter how ancient rule started a couple of years ago. Doesn't matter what you look like, you have to show an ID. Funny story...my mother and I and our beer are in the check out line at a convenience store right across the street from Lambeau Field. (Packer hallowed ground for you non-football peeps.) Neither one of us had an ID, we were going to the game so of course we weren't going to lug our purses along. Clerk says "I don't care. I need to see someone's ID." The 40 something GUY behind us says "Here. Use mine." Handed it to the clerk, she looked at it, and rung us up. True story.