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I was talking with a friend last night and we got onto the discussion of which states have tough liquor laws. I know that a number of states do not allow the purchase of alcohol on Sundays, after midnight, etc... but which states have the most strict laws?
PA--the year we lived there I was very surprised at the laws. You could not buy beer or wine at any regular stores/supermarkets. I believe they had certain stores you had to go to or you could buy from bars? (I don't drink alcohol so I am not certain exactly).
When I was in NH last year I was equally surprised. I was walking around the corner of a supermarket and boom...tons of bottles of wine!
Here (NY) I have seen beer and wine coolers in the supermarkets (you can't buy them before 12 on Sunday by the way). Wine is another story..I believe you must go to a liquor store for that.
I think you will find that Utah has the most strictest laws of any state in the union.
I can't cite all the laws but weird things I have read about are having to be a member of a club to drink spirits (think gin, bourbon, vodka and the like) outside of your home. That kind of thing.
Things may be changing but alcohol laws are pretty tough there.
It may be the PA is stricter than UT--apparently UT can sell liquor in markets under a certain alcohol level, and from what I've observed--no liquor--PA is darn tough.
In PA liquor is only sold by the state govt. in "State Stores" now known as "Wine and Spirits" shops. They are typically open from 9 - 9, some are open until 10 and a few are open on Sunday from noon - 5. There are a very few small food markets that can sell beer. I think they were selling it before the laws changed long ago.
There has been talk from time to time about the state turning the alcohol concession over to private enterprise but it never gets very far. More recently it appears supermarkets, etc., will be getting approved soon to sell beer and maybe wine.
In a bar you can only buy beer for takeout and I think only 2 six-packs at a time. You have to take them out to your car and go back in or have friends with you if you want more. Last call at bars is 2:00 A.M.
A dry town borders an eastern side of Pittsburgh. There aren't any bars or clubs, but it has a State Store however.
What is the reasoning behind all these strict convoluted laws, especially in a place like PA? (Utah has the whole Mormon thing going, so I can see that there)
Most of my life I lived in a place where there were very few alcohol laws (perhaps the abject failure of prohibition is still on the minds of the lawmakers here), but when I moved to Indiana for school, I noticed that they had a few more (one couldn't buy alcohol on Sunday nor did the grocery sell spirits, which was a bit annoying, especially if you wanted to have a last minute get together). I still don't understand the reasoning behind all these convoluted laws over what is a legal substance, don't get me wrong, I'm well aware of the problems that can arise from the overconsumption of alcohol, and I do think that people should be careful with it, but I don't really know what is to be gained by having to drive or walk to a separate store to buy a bottle of vodka.
Years ago bars weren't permitted to operate on Sundays in PA and malls were never open either. The entire state was like it stopped in time. When I was young a friend and I went door to door selling mulberries. Two old ladies at one residence chastised us for doing such a thing on a Sunday. Adults attributed the ridiculousness to the PA Blue Laws. Getting booze anywhere on a Sunday was impossible unless you belonged to a "club." State Stores are never open on Sundays so you can't buy liquor anywhere in the state.
I've been in southern states (including Florida) where the laws are equally as silly, just different.
Well, I live in the deep south. It's a patchwork of laws mostly controlled by either the county or city governments. Some counties are "dry" - no liquor, beer or wine sold ever and limit such only to allow transport for personal use (like one case of beer) from a wet county. Some are "wet" - beer and wine available in grocery stores and covenience stores, liquor available at ABC (alcoholic beverage control) stores that close by 7pm, freestanding liquor stores are few and far between, no sales on Sunday before 12pm. Some are both - county is dry, but city is wet.
In PA liquor is only sold by the state govt. in "State Stores" now known as "Wine and Spirits" shops. They are typically open from 9 - 9, some are open until 10 and a few are open on Sunday from noon - 5. There are a very few small food markets that can sell beer. I think they were selling it before the laws changed long ago.
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In a bar you can only buy beer for takeout and I think only 2 six-packs at a time. You have to take them out to your car and go back in or have friends with you if you want more. Last call at bars is 2:00 A.M...
In Colorado you can't sell alcohol over 3.2% (where's the coffee? I can get a better buzz off that for much less money) in non liquor stores. All liquor stores can only be owned by one "person" or "corporation". I currently work with a family that has two liquor stores and one to be opening soon but the stores are individually owned by each of the people - how they figured out how to get around the law is beyond me.
Anyhow, you can't buy alcohol but 3.2% on Sundays. Meaning you can go to the grocery at noon and buy 3.2% but why?
You can, in some instances buy directly from a micro brewery up to a gallon of regular beer that is brewed (really convoluted if you ask me) on a Sunday but part of that has to be consumed there. Also, IIRC they just passed a bill that would allow patrons of restaurants to take home an open container of wine they didn't finish at a restaurant but only in the trunk.
In CO I think the laws are as such that you can only buy containers of alcohol from 8:00 am to 12:00 am. Most stores close at least by 11:00 pm and most aren't open until 10:00 am.
Although, bars are able to give people drinks from 8:00 am to 2:00 am but most have a cut off of 1:00 am to get the people to get out...I could be wrong, it's been a while since I looked up the laws but I still think that Utah has some of the most sweeping (entire state) of laws on the books.
I know there are dry counties in the east. But those are by county and not state.
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