What is up with NY Booze Laws?

How can you not sell beer and wine in the grocery store? They are food....

Ve don't know that in Sweden yet. Ve have to buy our alcohol in special shops called the Systembolaget(The System company) (don't ask where they found that name...) They're open Monday to friday from 10.00 till 19.00 and from 10.00 till 14.00 on saturdays.

Quit your whining.

Both my home state (Ohio) and my current location (Washington) have State Stores, which sell all the liquor and also carry wine. They're fairly easy to find, but tend to have short hours. Washington is "experimenting" with allowing a select few to be open on Sundays.

Groceries and other stores sell beer and wine only in these two states. In Ohio, the state sets the prices; a 6-pack of Budweiser costs the same everywhere, all the time. WA is more flexible; prices vary from store to store.

Liquor laws are generally pretty weird. When I was first 21, you'd go into a State Store in Ohio and be in a little room with the available products listed on typewritten sheets tacked to the wall. You filled out a little slip with what you wanted and handed it to a clerk in a bank-teller-type window, complete with bars. The clerk went into the back and get your bottle and sell it to you.

The thought was, if you could actually see the booze, you'd go nuts and buy more than was good for you....

Re: What is up with NY Booze Laws?


True. I have always lived here so I don't find it strange at all, but if you want some REALLY puritanical laws, try Pennsylvania or Utah.

Although...I have at least three or four liquor stores all within a five-minute walk of my apartment in any direction. They're everywhere!

Funny, sounds just like Sveden.
Unless, you live on the countryside, where there a small moonshinestill behind every second bush. Good stuff, too.

Re: What is up with NY Booze Laws?


shoulda walked up a few blocks to 14th. there's a decent TJ's wine store there with a great selection. Also a couple of wine shops right around the edge of Union Square. Oh, and a GREAT place inside Chelsea Market.

If you ever go back to NYC, go to yelp.com before you go (or while you're there with internet access) and find out what the locals recommend. We got some really good recommendations for the A2K get-together a couple of months back.

How can it be that I know the store on 14th (15,000 square feet can't be overlooked) and those others around Union Square as well? :wink:

Well, the only real 24/24 shops you can buy alcohol stuff here are the petrol stations ...

For those from locations with (overly) strict liquor control laws, do you really find it shocking when you travel somewhere like Michigan or California, and you see booze in the pharmacy/grocery/party store?

Part of my point is, these are just more government controls being placed on you. So many people are so used to being controlled they submit to other forms without even realizing it. When suddenly those controls are lifted, they feel like something is wrong. What is up with that?

Perhaps because I didn't spend any time in the 10-25 blocks? We stayed in midtown, went uptown, went to a Yankees game, and visited Ground Zero, Little Italy, and went to Katz's Deli. That was about all we could fit into 2.5 days.

Re: What is up with NY Booze Laws?


Sure but what kind of selection do they have and at what price? In California, I can get a 1.75L (1/2 gallon) of Smirnoff at just about any Walgreens for around $16.... In Michigan, that same bottle costs $26, no matter where you go (state controlled liquor sales).