Outdated, Stale Liquor Laws...

Sorry if this has been covered already, but the way I heard it worked was that an NJ cop would look at a few plates on cars in the parking lot of in NJ liquor store and inform a PA cop who would pull you over as soon as you crossed the border back. Seems hard to buy given that I didn't think cops worked out of state/jurisdiction like that, but that's one of the only ways I can think of that it would work. I didn't live there at the time but was told that up until like the 80s, all of the state run stores in PA (the only place you can buy wine and liquor) closed at like 5 pm on Friday and didn't open again until Monday (!) so it was a common thing to cross bridges for booze.

 

Decades ago (like 4 decades ago) there were instances where PA state cops would enter MD and using binoculars would report PA license plate number via radio back to PA state police back in PA so they could stop the cars once they crossed the state line. The MD liquor store owners would get wind of this and call the MD state cops to evict the PA state cops from MD. This was written up in PA newspapers (the Philadelphia Inquirer?) at the time. I think these particular practices stopped a looooong time ago.

Cheers!

 

No liquor sales on Sunday. If they really didnt want me buy liquor on sundays, then I wouldnt be able to buy it at a bar either.

I get heftily annoyed at the no beer sales before noon on Sunday here in NC. Like lets be honest, who is going to get hurt when I go to the bar and order a beer at 11 on Sunday? Also, this no happy hour shit has to go too.

 

You have 30 minutes on us. Makes NFL Panthers watching at our bar a challenge. 12:30 and then we can order a drink. I don't get it either.

 

Part of the reason (probably one of the biggest reasons) for the certain laws existing/not changing is that politicians get greased by trade groups/lobbies/whatever for industries. Like the ABV cap for beer. It makes no damn sense, so I can't help but be suspicious that maybe the wine/liquor industries are the reason that laws like that stay on the books. I know for a fact that the distributors in PA have a strong lobby that pretends to do things in the interest of public $afety, but everything they do is in their own economic best interest.

 

Crazy, but I believe it.

 

As mentioned for Minnesota, no Sunday sales and the lack of permissible distribution for brewpubs (which I believe is because they are partly viewed as a retailer and thus cannot act as a wholesaler - it's weird and slightly complicated with the language in the law).

As a side note, and something I only stumbled across because of research I'm doing for a speech I'm giving in a couple of weeks for class -

297G.07 subdivision 2, paragraph a

But good news! If you're coming from another country you can bring up to 320 ounces of fermented malt beverage! (paragraph b)

 

Bastards!

 

What did you drink when you passed through Rhode Island in 1992?

 

It gets worse (and I'm sure you know this, but people who aren't familiar with the goings on in the state do not) but the state has a monopoly on wine and liquor, two things that there will always be a heavy demand for, and they lose money on it! How poorly run do you have to be to have a scenario where you can literally force people to come to your business if they want an extremely popular product and still lose money?!?

 

Where'd you hear they lost money on it?

This source disagrees with that:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/08/pennsylvania_liquor_control_bo_19.html

As does this annual report to the state:

http://www.lcb.state.pa.us/cons/groups/externalaffairs/documents/form/002496.pdf

 

And there was legislation passed to reform the PA liquor laws but Gov. Wolf vetoed it; below is something I already posted in this thread:

"Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed that legislation in July, saying that while the state's liquor system does need to be modernized, the bill that was passed would result in higher prices for customers."

Gov. Wolf did indeed veto the legislation but the reason published there is total BS. The well being of PA constituents was the last thing he was thinking about.

 

I remember Texas had a law involving some "family friendly" crap. Stone wasn't allowed to sell Double Bastard there until the last couple of years because it had the word 'masturbatory' in the description on the back...

 

When did that change? Apparently nobody in my county, or any of the surrounding ones is aware.

 

Liquor cannot be sold directly to consumers, and must first be sold to a distributor. I can't buy beer (cans, bottles) from my local breweries, so, I have to go hunting for them at random stores.

 

Maybe it wasn't as a whole, but that's what I had heard. This blog is obviously biased, but it mentions 45 stores that were in the red http://noplcb.blogspot.com/2011/08/state-stores-lose-moneyand-plcbs-proud.html
Every single store should be raking the money in. They have no competition!

 

Well they certainly could do that simply by closing any stores that don't show a big enough profit. I'm sure that those rural Pennsylvanians and the legislators they elect would much rather see the PLCB make a bigger profit than they would want to have convenient access to wine and liquor.

 

Reading these horror stories really makes me appreciate my home state. There is no happy hour but I really don't care too much about that. Subject to local restriction I can buy beer, wine and liquor at the same store (grocery, liquor, whatever), as much of it as I want, 7 days a week and it can be as cold as a January morning. No abv cap on beer.

Most people find ways to adjust to state and local restrictions which for the most part renders many of them ineffective. And since people are used to them there is little clamor for change, which is a shame. We are supposed to be a government by the people, not a people by the government.

 

I have a better idea. It rhymes with...ok I can't think of anything that rhymes with "privatization."

Edit: and I don't think it's the gov't's job to supply people in the sticks with alcohol

 

Well privatization could indeed be a better idea, but I do keep wondering why a Republican Governer who ran on a platform with Privitization as one of the planks and who had the support of the legislature couldn't manage to get that bill passed during his 4 years in office.

As for it being or not being the gov'ts job to have those liquor stores in the the rural areas of the state, that is the way it often is in a state that is mostly rural, with one of the most cumbersome legislatures in the country that is dominated by rural interests.