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I have a dumb question to pose. In all the time I've lived here, I've never been in an ABC store. What is sold in there besides hard liquor? How are the prices? Do they vary from one store to another?
In NJ, liquor was traditionally never sold in grocery stores and neither was beer and wine. A "liquor" store sold beer,wine and the hard stuff and were free to set their own prices. By law they had to close at 10:00PM. Since most people shopped at the major grocery chains, there was usually a liquor store next to the supermarket to facilitate "One-Stop" shopping. Before I moved to NC tho' things started to change. The big A&P by me had a liquor license that allowed them to sell everything - beer, wine, scotch -etc. The prices there were very good - better than their food prices which were high to me -think Harris Teeter!
NY and KY also sold beer and wine in stores, but had separate privately-owned liquor stores.
In Union County, Indian Trail has a big to-do about liquor by the drink. This always struck me as odd. In NJ, restaurants either had liquor licenses or didn't. I think it costs about $250,000 to obtain one. What's the big deal about this? Feel free to pelt me with your comments!
ABC stores in NC are operated by the state, so prices don't vary much. It is pretty much hard liquor. In SC, their ABC commision oversees liquour stores, but the stores are independently owned.
Some counties in the area (Union, York) have some pretty antiquated liquor laws. I cannot buy beer in Fort Mill on Sunday, yet I can drive to Rock Hill to buy it in a bar but not the store. This is as stupid as it gets. I can drink at a bar and drive home, but I can't buy beer to bring home and drink safely in the confines of my home. Crazy.
In Detroit, you can buy a fifth of Jack Daniles at 7-11 or the drug store. I don't know if it's changed, but it used to be you couldn't buy alcohol at a gas station there. When we moved to WNY, it was weird buying beer at gas stations.
NC's alcohol laws are some of the most whacked out I've heard of, aside from Utah perhaps.
I lived near Raleigh in Johnston County near the Wake line. There was an ABC store there, one that I got kind of familiar with Grocery stores could not sell beer but convenience stores could only if food was served there. Eventually they voted to let grocery stores sell beer there. I was just confused as to what sense any of it was supposed to make.
You also have to fill out some long winded form if you buy above some limiting quantity of hard liquor here in Mecklenburg County. I bought 10 bottles for a party & had to fill out a stupid form. The ABC on Carmel Rd. near Hwy 51 has an amazing selection of vodka.
Hmm. The post about NJ sounds a lot like CT. Everything was sold in Package stores, grocery stores could sell only beer, and the cut-off was real early (I think it was 8 PM) and nothing was allowed to be sold on Sundays. I remember kids running out of beer in the middle of a keg party, and having to hop into a car and drive over the state line to NY to buy more beer from a convenience store.
When we moved to upstate NY, we had some friends coming over from CT to visit. I remember them showing up, frustrated and a little pissed, because they hadn't been able to find any beer locally in the Supermarkets, and they couldn't find any Package stores. I had to guide them to the convenience store where they could buy the beer, and to the beverage mart where they could get the other liquor.
In Westerly, RI, you're not allowed to have any open alcohol in public, or in view of the public. If you're standing on your own porch or deck with alcohol, and you're seen by law enforcement, you can be arrested.
Yet back home in Scotland, I could buy whisky with my groceries, only time you could not was before 12 on a Sunday
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