43 Comments - Perrid - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:31 am: Until right now I didn’t know that this wasn’t normal. Which states is it not allowed in? - wildcat12 - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:31 am: It is weird if you’re from the South! I moved to Illinois just over 6 years ago, and I couldn’t get over liquor being sold in gas stations and grocery stores. - Downstate - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:33 am: I wonder how a gas station owner from the 1970’s, would react if he was told, “In 4 decades, gas stations will no longer offer repair services. And instead of an attendant fueling the car, the facility will feature a grill chef.” - Donnie Elgin - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:35 am: My friends from SC come here and have the same reaction. They can only buy booze at “red dot” stores. - Anyone Remember - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:36 am: Don’t forget fru fru coffee. - 17% Solution - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:37 am: But gas stations can’t give out free samples. - ChicagoVinny - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:39 am: I don’t know if it’s still this way, but in Pennsylvania if you were throwing a party you’d have at least 3, maybe 4 destinations to get all your needs: -state run store for liquor and wine -beer distributor for cases or kegs of beer -bar for six packs of beer -grocery store for mixers and such It was a huge inconvenience. - Fav human - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:39 am: Iowa used to sell liquor at state stores only. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:43 am: - ChicagoVinny - You’re on it, in Pennsylvania, I’ve even driven through a beer distributor to pick up Yuengling. I was at a wedding once in Pittsburgh, as an example, near Pitt campus, we found ourselves walking to a bar to get beer, before midnight. Crazy laws for alcohol. - Coal Man - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:44 am: Hey. I’d say in a few more years you will be able to buy booze, a half dozen joints, and gamble all your money away in a quick easy stop. Give me 5 gallons of low lead while you’re at it, I gotta get over to the IHOP for dinner. - H-W - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:50 am: I am from the South but have lived here 25 years. In most southern, “red” states, liquor is definitely regulated, and only sold at state stores. In most, you can buy beer and wine at grocery and convenience stores. Nearly all still have state-wide Sunday closing laws (”Blue Laws”), as opposed to here where counties make that decision). At least, I think this is how it works outside Illinois. - Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:55 am: === buy booze, a half dozen joints, and gamble all your money away in a quick easy stop=== You can probably do that now. lol - njt - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 11:58 am: ===Give me 5 gallons of low lead while you’re at it, I gotta get over to the IHOP for dinner.=== If it’s a one stop shop, you’d have to assume that it’ll be a 4 am dinner at the Waffle House. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:03 pm: === 4 am dinner at the Waffle House=== I’m in favor of Upstate Illinois Waffle Houses. It would tie together so much, probably keep me in Illinois longer too. - Pot calling kettle - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:08 pm: My first experience with a drive-thru liquor store was in the 1980’s in North Carolina. (A “Brew Thru” I still have a picture somewhere.) What I don’t understand is how a wine store had “heavy competition” from gas station wine. In my experience, the vino sold by those two retailers is very different. - Silent Budgeteer - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:09 pm: I grew up in the South (Florida; family in Tennessee and Alabama); hard liquor was only available in package stores (as they were known, such as ABC Liquors or other stores. They were not state-run, but privately owned (or part of a corporation). One could get beer and cheap wine (think Boone’s Farm) at the convenience store (which, for the most part, are now combined with the gas stations). - SouthSide - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:09 pm: Most Illinois municipalities prohibited liquor sales at gas stations until Illinois courts struck down the prohibition. Jacobsen v. Illinois Liquor Control Comm., 97 Ill. App. 3d 700 (2nd Dist. 1981) - njt - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:10 pm: ===Crazy laws for alcohol.=== Very strange, similar in NJ too. Although I’ve got family in NH now and the state store is literally the only place you can buy wine and spirits. Thanksgiving the stores are always packed. https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/new-hampshire-alcohol-laws-granite-hard-laws/ - ChicagoBars - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:14 pm: Ah crud, that post at 12:13pm about Chicago’s gas station restriction was me. Me culpa - H-W - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:28 pm: == What I don’t understand is how a wine store had “heavy competition” from gas station wine. == In small towns such as Macomb, I can see how that could happen. Here the county population is perhaps 30,000 now. The town is now significantly below 20,000, and about 8,000 are college students. Most of the latter will be looking for cheap wines. If you consider the other 12,000 residents of Macomb, perhaps only 7,500 are of age, and perhaps a lot less are wine drinkers. It makes sense that trying to maintain a winery in a small town will be more difficult as college students, working class citizens and poor people opt for the cost rather than the the quality. And as more dispensaries become available (including but not mentioned several Big Box pharmacies and stores), individual proprietors will face a growing struggle to compete as more and more stores sell what they specialize in. Its a small town thing. - Independent - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:29 pm: As an aside the Dukes museum in Nashville (Cooter’s) is OK. But the Willie Nelson museum next door is much better. One of his fans bought Willie’s memorabilia in a Tax Auction in the 80s and put it on display. Only $10 admission and worth every penny. - Motambe - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:35 pm: In Missouri add guns and ammo to the mix. Those are real party stores! - Anon221 - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:38 pm: You really want confusion… go to Kentucky. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2019/05/10/heres-how-many-dry-counties-are-left-in-kentucky.amp.html - Lester Holt’s Mustache - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:43 pm: There are still entire counties in Tennessee that you can’t buy liquor in - my family lives in one. Was down there for thanksgiving, had to drive 30 minutes to find something other than beer or hard cider. - Just Me - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:50 pm: I also remember when the counter of every gas station had a map taped to it because people were forever asking for directions. - Just Me - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:51 pm: I can also remember my mom giving me $10 for gas and I would pump gas and pump it ever so carefully to make sure it wasn’t $10.01. - muon - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:57 pm: About 20 years ago I was involved with a survey of local liquor license holders. That included a few gas stations with licenses. As part of my survey I made multiple visits and observed the typical purchasing patterns. I found that liquor purchases at the gas stations were dominated by containers best suited for immediate consumption. That meant a lot of 24-oz beer containers, 6-packs of cans and small containers of hard liquor. Purchases of wine, 6-packs of bottles, or liquor in 750 ml bottles was rare. I could only conclude that many of the purchasers were intending to consume their purchase in the car. I travel a lot by car, and had noticed the differences between the states. After my local observations, I could see why other states and municipalities might want to restrict sales at gas stations. - Huh? - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 12:57 pm: Up until a few years ago, South Ottawa Township was dry. All the sots had to cross the river to buy their booze. - RNUG - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 1:05 pm: == It is weird if you’re from the South! I moved to Illinois just over 6 years ago, and I couldn’t get over liquor being sold in gas stations and grocery stores. == Obviously never lived in Texas. I remember cold ones on ice by the checkout counter. - Joe Bidenopolous - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 1:17 pm: = There are still entire counties in Tennessee that you can’t buy liquor in…= Still at least one in Illinois. I grew up in it. Liquor stores/bars basically right at the border in each direction. - SouthSide Markie - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 1:25 pm: The east side of Western Avenue in the Beverly neighborhood on the Southwest side of Chicago (19th Ward) has been dry forever. - ArchPundit - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 1:43 pm: Minnesota only allows most sales in a liquor store which has to have a separate entrance if it is at a grocery store or such. Some bars can sell off sale, but only 3.2 beer in gas stations or grocery stores. And Sunday liquor sales are about two years old. Missouri and Illinois have some of the most lax statewide regulations or as I have always thought of it, normal. - @misterjayem - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 2:04 pm: “Missouri and Illinois have some of the most lax statewide regulations or as I have always thought of it, normal.” In Missouri, vehicle passengers are still permitted to possess an open container and consume alcohol. When I was first told about that, I presumed it *had* to be erroneous folk-law — then I remembered where Anheuser-Busch was headquartered. – MrJM - obiter dictum - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:03 pm: also interesting is that in many counties historically the number of liquor licenses were tied to the number of churches. A person who wanted another liquor license for his new bar would hire an itinerant preacher to start a church. Often why on the main intersection of town there are two churches and two bars. The Lord works in mysterious ways - SouthernCentrist - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:18 pm: I live in the south now(see my name), and the only place you can purchase liquor is at government run liquor stores. When I mention back in Illinois you can get liquor basically anywhere people are flabbergasted. Illinois seems to have very lax regulations for where alcohol can be sold relative to many other states. - David Daker - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:21 pm: You have drive-through liquor windows in Illinois and you wonder why there’s so many DUIs? Out here in Washington, there isn’t a single drive-through in the entire state! Thanks to Sam Cahnman, when he was Alderman, Springfield banned all new drive-through liquor windows. Illinois needs to follow Cahnmans lead and ban drive-through liquor window sales statewide. - Shemp - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:27 pm: Guy must not get out of Tennessee much. Bought a friend Yuengling in Kentucky at a gas station this year on the way back to Illinois. Last I checked a map, TN and KY were in the same neighborhood. - Shemp - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:29 pm: You can buy spirits in Iowa gas stations now too (not to mention Wisconsin) and the aforementioned border state of MO. - Rich Miller - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:30 pm: ===Out here in Washington, there isn’t a single drive-through in the entire state=== Um… “Police arrested 27,046 people [in Illinois] for DUI in 2017″ https://alcolockusa.com/blog/drunk-driving-statistis-in-illinois/ “In 2015, there were 34,952 DUI arrests in the state [of Washington]” https://www.northpointrecovery.com/blog/dui-laws-washington-state-need-know/ Illinois population: 12.74 million Washington population: 7.536 million Who has the drinking problem? - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:34 pm: Then-Senate President Pate Philip once sponsored legislation to prohibit drive-thru liquor sales. I’ll paraphrase his presentation: You know what, if you’re too drunk to get outta the car you shouldn’t be buying liquor. His GOP-controlled Senate Executive Committee defeated Pate’s proposal. - lincoln's beard - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 3:53 pm: === A buddy of mine told me that he sold his wine shop a while back partly because of heavy competition from gas stations === these ethanol subsidies have gotten out of hand - fs - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 4:00 pm: == Illinois needs to follow Cahnmans lead== No, no we don’t. Ever. - ArchPundit - Monday, Dec 16, 19 @ 7:27 pm: ===When I was first told about that, I presumed it *had* to be erroneous folk-law — then I remembered where Anheuser-Busch was headquartered. This was claimed to a be central tenet of freedom when there was legislation introduced to change it. AB’s biggest effort was trying to stop craft brewers for several years. Schlafly and Boulevard fought them for years until AB figured it was a lost cause. 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