So I just picked up some juice at the local WSLCB, and the clerks were busy yapping away at all the clients that if liquor becomes privatized in Washington, that the prices will stay the same because the retailers can't buy at the same low rate as Washington State, and that variety and selection will suffer because the big stores will only carry select types of Alcohol. Their opinions.

My opinion is that yes, Costco and other stores will not carry everything that a WSLCB store would, but that's fine with me, because I could likely get the less-popular types of alcohol elsewhere.
One Pricing however, I'm not so sure how it will work.

So what do you think, if this law passes, will we have the same selection, better, or worse? ...and will prices drop, rise, or stay the same?

In the words of the coolest, smartest, most interesting man on earth, stay thirsty my friends!

I am in favor of privatizing the liquor stores, but disagree that private industry is always better. When I was an auditor we found very high error rates in medical claims processing by private insurers. Much higher then rates found for claims processed by state employees. I also would rather have my military and police not be privatized. Nothing is always.

You may have to drive a little further to find that special bottle.

What will happen with prices is anybody's guess and will be an effect of numerous factors other than the privatization of the industry.

It's a good thing overall. Can't see any reason the state should spend money in order to control the liquor industry.

I am eagerly awaiting a Bevmo in my town.

WSLCB can go [censored] itself.

As for the employees? Well, most of them are hard-working people who really need the money and health bennies, then there are those WSLCB asshats that think they are some kind of vice-cops. I actually saw one at Lakefair last year strapped with a glock and randomly demanding ID. I wont feel bad when they are holding a sign on an off-ramp.

I won't miss WSLCB a bit. They dug their own grave with decades of archaic restrictions and asinine policies.

IMO, the state has no business peddling alcohol or tobacco.

I have traveled a lot in my life and in price and variety you have to go to a dry county in the South to do much worse than this state. The concept of reducing availability by the state controlling alcohol is really pretty stupid. If your gonna drink and can not deal with a addictive personality you will get alcohol even if your reduced to drinking Mad Dog. There is one out of the 60's but still true.

Only trouble with MD is is you chase parked cars and bark at the moon on cloudy nights. Makes for one hell of a story when you recover your thought process.

My brother and I swiped a bottle of MD 20/20 Plum Supreme from my old man that wound up in a box in the basement since nobody of legal age would drink that sh!t.

We did.

And boy were we f'n sorry.

The crap they are spewing is union propaganda so that they will keep their jobs. Under Prop 1100 safeway,costco, fred meyer etc will be able
to buy direct from the distiller. The volume discounts that they get will
be cheaper than anything the state gets.

I lived in California the prices and selection that costco was better than any state liquor store i have been in. And if costco didnt have it safeway or albertsons did. Not to mention bev mo and traders joes
carried hard liquor also.

Damned Unions! Can't even get freakin' drunk anymore 'cause o' them bastards...

Hey Chuck, you ready to call Acme fire dept. if'n your house burns down?

How about Amalgamated Police and Security when someone tries to steal you kicker motor?

Sometimes privatized, for-profit ain't what you think it is...

'Specially now that KK has his own lighter and gasoline.

Better price, selection and service.

Fark the union and get this state out of the liquor business!

Pretty sweet when you can roll into 7-11 in Phoenix, grab a slurpee some jerky and a bottle of Jack for the road...

Why doesn't the state get to buy direct from the distiller and get a bulk discount? And aren't there union workers at Costco, Safeway, Fred Meyers, et al?

Drank Mad Dog ONCE before a High School Dance. Went straight to the dance then straight out behind the stadium to blow chunks then I went straight home to sleep the rest off.

All in all, the night went better than my experiences with 'ice beer.'

The state most likely buys from the manufacturer or the rep ( southern wine and spirit is the big gun on the west coast). Yes safeway and fred meyer are union, costco is not. State employees have a stronger union with better benefits pay etc.

Why even get out of your car? Plenty of drive through liquor stores down there...

What I hate about the current stores is how early they close. I need to plan ahead if I need liquor! That, to me, is BS. I was glad down in Phoenix that after getting to work at 7am, then leaving at 9pm, I could stop by the grocery store and pick up some stress relief if I didn't have any at home.

About 13% of Costco employees are union.

"The state most likely" buys from a distributor? Or you know for fact they do? For the sake of argument, let's say they are forced to buy from Southern Wine and Spirit; what precludes the grocery stores from not being held to the same requirement? I doubt SWS is going to sit by and let one of their biggest customers go away.

I don't believe private grocers will be able to buy the products any cheaper than what the state does now. Considering how many liquor stores are in the state, that's some serious volume.

Lived in a lot of States and therefore experienced a lot of different situations of buying booze. The Setup clubs of Texas in the 60's were a joke, not being able to carry your own longneck around a pool table in Delaware were laughable, being astonded in Colorado State Boozer store that a fifth of Seagrams 7 was twice as expensive as a private outlet, etc., etc. Also being used to the Wednesday's Boozer ads in the Illinois papers where Walgreens liquior specials were displayed on two full aisles were great.

Then moving to the "Left Coast" and experiencing the asinine Washington/Oregon State(s) Liquior attempts at running a business is laughable to say the least. Here this thread is now almost 2 pages long and nobody has remembered and mentioned the massive expensive and "Failed" Washington State Automated Booze Warehouse. That alone has in all likelyhood driven up the price of Hooch at least 50%. Goobermint does NOT want to be efficient, doesn't bode well for empires. In terms of efficently and EFFECTIVELY running essentially a Materials Management form of business, Goobermint is the last one you want involved. I believe that is why States who have Private Enterprises doing the Booze Business have far cheaper Hooch, better availability/choice, and better REVENUE flow thru liquior stamps (TAXATION) than either Washington or Orygun. They just Do Not have to support a Bureacracy. Compare the price of a bottle of VO in Walgreens in Illinois (after the Wednesday's Ads are out) to a bottle in either Orygun or Washington.

It's not as bad as it used to be. Every time residents make noises about turning the liquor board out into the street, they ease up regs a notch or two. When I first turned 21 the only place you could get a cocktail was in a restaurant's lounge that could only be X percent of the Y in floor space, so some of these spots were the size of a closet. Was actually nice, because if you managed to get a table, by last call chances were you'd have a girl or two on your lap for lack of seating space. (I miss the 90's.) It was a good way to make friends fast.

There was also a rule that outdoor beer gardens could only be for ONE week out of the year and were beer & wine only and could only be like 10'x10' or some such bullschit.

Remember when you could sit down and enjoy a cigar?

The liquor store that was closest to my house was converted to an Outback Steakhouse. I say bring it on.

If anything, this liquor initiative will produce some funny ass commercial from the opposition on how evil alcohol is if not controlled by the state.

They do make great moonshine on the rez at the canal !!!!!

hmmm.... Me thinks Costo should sell marry-wanna instead. Me been waiting over 30 years to legally smoke a joint. Aint getten any younger, so make it legal already!
FYI... Medical marry-wanna license in WA aint worth the paper its written on so don't rely on it.
Smoke em, if ya got em, Pot-head at heart

I'm a pothead too.......... Right Dan?

Keith

AM,
Not sure if the tribes would oppose it or not. The last time I looked at booze pricing in a tribal store, it was the same as in a state run store. I wonder if tribes can buy direct from the distillery or have to go through a distributor?
If this does pass, my next wish would be an initiative to level the playing field in the gaming industry.

I didn't see a thing, Keith.

How could you see through those slits you call eyes.

Now that is cold JG !!!

I'm old enough to remember when you had to be certain to pick up a 'Sunday sack' so you'd have beer on Sunday as you couldn't buy it.
Yea, it sucks now but the suckage then was maximum.

I think this will pass overwhelmingly. But, I hope they also loosen the rules about hours, etc. If you areold enopugh to buy booze, you are old enough to decide when, where, and how you want to buy it.

Enopugh, already!
(Fingers do funny things, eh, Deva?)

Axe the state run liquor stores and put Taco Bell in charge.

* Plenty of locations already!
* Drive thru!
* Open late!
* Ridiculously cheap...

Now "make a run for the border" has real meaning!

They gonna privatize rehabs for all you alkies?
Oh yeah nevermind. BTW rehabs are big business here in California. There's one on every corner.

I would like to see Liquor privatized.

Paying 30% more for some booze here than in privatized states is reason enough.

Seeing as they already drove the price of Becks up to almost 10 bucks for a 6 pack!

Marz - You did know that you don't have to go to a state run liquor store to buy Becks beer... right?

Booze costs the same or less here than it does in a lot of other states that have privatized sales.

I think you may be confusing liquor taxes with the privatized selling of alcohol.

Like where?

I can't think of another state except maybe Utah or one of those other Bible-thumper states that has higher sin-taxes than Warshington.

Sin taxes and the privatized sale of liquor are two different things. Just because we might go to privatized sales here in WA... doesn't mean that all of a sudden booze is gonna get a lot cheaper.

Since you asked though... I just got back from Alaska where I paid $15 for a pint of Jack Daniels at a private store. That same pint here is about the same price. I think it may be even more in CA right now too.

i don't care if you drink PBR's or not, how is this price compared to yours up there? i'd mention patron prices at costco down here, but i don't want JG to have a stroke - he's been laying down the zingers pretty good lately

Beer and wine are different because you can buy them at grocery and convenience stores up here too. Any price differential there would be tax only most likely.

How much is a pint of Jack Daniels down there right now Mike?

Liquor in the front!

Poker in the rear!

Seriously comparing prices in AK and Hawaii to the lower 48?!?

You do realize that anything in those states requires 2000+ miles of shipment, right?

$15 for a pint of JD sounds pretty expensive to me. I can get a pint for 8.99 here

Yes, I know I can buy Becks anywhere but I was referring to the recent tax, the price went up considerably (almost 2.00 per 6 pack).

Booze prices here are more expensive, hands down to CA and NV. not a lot initially but the sales, and other discount offerings like Bev Mo and Costco are quite a bit cheaper (at least that is my experience).

I think what 4Salt is saying is that there are three components of the total price you pay for your booze...the wholesale price + markup + taxes = total price.

Even if the wholesale price plus markup here in Washington becomes exactly the same as it is in CA, or Timbuktu, it's still going to cost more here because the alcohol tax is so high...going privatized will not necessarily do anything to the price you pay.

Fish on...

Todd

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/245.html

Jeasus Criste we pay a metric load for booze taxes..

But you make up for it with relatively low cost beer and wine. I wonder if the absence of distillery lobbyists compared to all the vinters and craft brewers in OR have anything to do with that. Nah.

yes, this is absoluely correct. the Wa. tax on hard booze is the killer!!!

I understand, taxes are taxes, there is nothing to be done about that but there are a few reasons Liquor is cheaper in non-regulated states.

The state does not have to compete for sales so they can retain a consistent markup without fear of driving customers to another store.

Competition drives markup down, many grocery, drug, big box stores will take pennies in profit on a sale item to get people in the door as they know that 90% will buy more than just the sale item when the store sells more than just alcohol.

I am not sure how WA state quantities compare to something like Safeway but I would guess Safeway pulls a pretty hefty quantity discount from distributors allowing for even more savings.

Thanks Todd... you summed it up well.

And you are right too Marz.

I favor the privatization of liquor sales in WA. I'm just not sure how much cheaper it's gonna make booze here?

Even if it is a couple bucks here and there, being able to buy bloody mary fixins at one store, on Sunday morning, it would be worth it.

Booze price wars amongst the major grocery chains.....I'd enjoy seeing that happen.
That might actually cause me to visit a Wallymart someday.

Taxes aside... my personal opinion is that the state is screwing themselves out of tax revenue by not privatizing it...

For me personally... I would have a fully stocked liquour cabinet at home if I didn't have to go to a separate store to purchase booze (especially one that closes before I even get home from work). We go to a grocery store a couple of times a week; my wife and I wouldn't bat an eye at throwing in a bottle of this or a bottle of that each time in order to make whatever foo-foo drink we felt like that night.

The only time we buy hard alchohol now is for camping trips... Its hard to beat a bloody mary breakfast to cure the hangover from the night before.

Fixed

fixed again not too sure about the salmon flavored vodka in the other thread though.

just got back from costco - close yours eyes JG, patron silver is $79.99 for 1.75 litres.

i really think todd should bring suit against the state for providing the alcohol that has killed untold thousands. do mod powers extend that far?

Cheers to that ... While my limited experience is usually a blurry saturday morning after an all night drive, set up camp and mass quanitities of beer around a campfire till the wee hours of a the morning. I could definately see getting my daily vegetable intake via bloody mary's any day of the week... Hell its an hour and a half comute to seattle from my house! plenty of time to sober up before work

Damn, that's cheap for SIlver, we almost pay that much for a friggen fifth here!

Looking at that state tax website makes me want to puke!

I'm hoping the bill passes as well, and that we see at least a 10-15% break from what we pay today. We deserve it after being bent over for so many years...

well, at least you guys have cheaper gas, so i guess you actually come out ahead. unless you you use jack daniels for your flex fuel vehicle

My personal belief is that prices won't change. We pay more than many places and less than some others. I quit bitching as much when I started hanging out in Canada more. Damn, they are getting it in a BAD way! We can get Canadian beer in Washington FAR cheaper than they get Canadian beer in Canada.

Iffin I wanted flavored Vodka I'd drink Gin.

Patron

the beer brewed in canda and what is sold south of the boarder here in the u.s. is not the same. canada gets taxed hard for the Alc.gravity. so to dodge the huge tax on it they brewer a much lighter Alc. gravity beer.

Whether the price of alcohol goes up or down is irrelevant. The state should no more be in the business of selling us liquor than it should be selling us our groceries, gas, or hardware and dry goods, - or our fishing tackle. The WSLCB is a stupid relic anachronism left over from prohibition, which was damn near a century ago! About f'n time to shift over to having private business sell booze. 'Tis the 21st century after all.

Sg

True thing.