Comments on: Washington State is Out of Booze

By: warcraft gold guide

warcraft gold guide — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:56:13 +0000

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[...]Washington State is Out of Booze | The Pegu Blog[...]…

By: professional seo

professional seo — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 05:44:31 +0000

This seems less like a government incompetency issue and more like a bad case of cool new toy syndrome. Maybe people should learn to test fancy new systems before implementing them, regardless of whether they’re in a government or a business.

By: David Trinh » Deep Thought

David Trinh » Deep Thought — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:54:28 +0000

[...] Government and alcohol don’t mix well. Categories: Food, Policy Tags: Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment Trackback [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:11:28 +0000

@fred suggs (#39):

>> The reality is that thanks to George Romney and the 1963 Michigan Constitution, the state is actually well run, regardless of which party is in power in Lansing.<<

I'm damned near choked on that one! (I guess I shouldn't drink or eat anything when reading blog comments.)

You ARE joking, aren't you fred? Our state is in the worst shape of any in the country, and all the buffoons in Lansing can come up with is MORE taxes and ridiculous regulations. Although, I suppose if your goal is to depopulate the state as much as possible then Lansing has been doing a great job it. (At least the beavers have come back to Detroit for the first time in near a century.)

I think the main reason MLCC hasn't screwed things up as bad as Washington is that they have multiple wholesale distributors set up. Even our goofballs haven't been so stupid as to try to make all distribution for the entire state go through a single point, as Washington did.

By: Civil Liberties

Civil Liberties — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:39:15 +0000

And brandy. Got to have brandy for coq au vin, which entails a trip to the liquor store…

By: Civil Liberties

Civil Liberties — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:37:16 +0000

I live in Washington state. I don’t drink so getting/paying for hard liquor is not an issue to me normally. I grew up in California where the state does not own liquor stores. It took me a while to adjust to here though because there have been times I needed say a bottle of vodka and had to make a special trip. I don’t drink but others do.

You can get beer and wine in the grocery stores though, which is nice because I do cook and I use wine (and sometimes beer) in sauces and the like so that makes it less annoying.

I can’t remember where I was at but I think it was Maryland…you can’t even buy beer in a grocery store. I was so surprised that the state was that big of a weenie. Of course they’re right next to Pennsylvania and knowing what Iknow now…no big surprise.

By: Federalist Paupers » Blog Archive » The List of States I Would Never Live In

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:11:55 +0000

[...] The List of States I Would Never Live In Grew by one. [...]

By: Mattsky

Mattsky — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:19:21 +0000

Doug New Hampshire certainly is predatory toward liquor outlets in the neighboring states. They set up stores near the borders and even put stores in the highway rest areas. They were also open on Sundays. NH also borders on Canada which has very high prices on booze. I never took issue with it. I was happy not to have a sales tax or a state income tax but your point is well taken.

By: From the Reno Tea Party

From the Reno Tea Party — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:10:43 +0000

[...] bit, but I hadn’t asked in advance and so didn’t get up until the end. I talked about Washington State’s state owned liquor stores and their problems with booze distribution and the fact that you can’t have justice without liberty – the lack of booze, of [...]

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:40:44 +0000

Raise it high enough and people will make their own. I was in Norway in the 1980′s. A bottle of Grandad cost 60USD. A beer in a bar was also stupidly high. Almost everyone in the country had a still in the kitchen. Problem solved. Best and most potent moonshine I ever encountered and I live in Tennessee.

By: Todd

Todd — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:56:18 +0000

“Oh, and coming next month, probably before they get their customer service act together, the state will increase the taxes on every bottle of booze by one to three dollars a bottle.”

Hey, raise the price high enough and nobody will want to buy it anyway. Problem solved!

By: ItIsWellKnown

ItIsWellKnown — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:38:55 +0000

No beer and no cable TV make Homer something something…

By: lowboy

lowboy — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:58:36 +0000

Yet another reader from Insty…

We have the same problem in NC. Also SC I think (they used to be state run in South Carolina, may not be now). Aside from a limited selection and too high pricing, what’s not to love?

However when I go out to Colorado I make it a point to stock up. Independent store owners who have SALES!!

By: BeachBumBill

BeachBumBill — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:05:38 +0000

Back in the day… Prohibition was in place and the black market (think Al Capone) and bathtub gin thrived. In a surprising moment of enlightenment, the US Government realized that taxation was the preferred option. Some states instantly imposed the State Store system, Washington among them.

Here is another question for the residents of Washington:
What does the State Store do for you that a privately owned store will not? Remember that with a State Store system you are precluded from the benefits of free market competition.

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:51:35 +0000

Hello, another reader via Instapundit. Sorry to hear about the problems you are having in Washington. Utah has a pretty good distribution system and they continue to add new and better stocked stores. One big problem is that the store hours are more like a bank than a retail outlet. The other big problem is cost – the markup is substantial as they use the proceeds to fund school lunches or something like that. That leads to some interesting alternatives, including:
Make your own beer and wine.
Find a friend with access to the military base liquor stores.
Import from out of state when traveling.

By: RED

RED — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:30:06 +0000

—-Not surprisingly, you don’t even bother to mention the likely cause: the influence of the religious right, who wants to control our lives and force us to live under Biblical law and want to keep us from things they don’t like, such as liquor.—

Yes, because Seattle is known as a backwater bastion of Christians —-

Hahahahahhaahaaa.. Great sarcasm Thanks!!!

By: BeachBumBill

BeachBumBill — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:20:40 +0000

The issue is framed as one of well-meaning but good hearted workers tripped up by a soon-to-be-fixed balky machine.

The real issue is one of control. The state has taken control and is highly unlikely to ever give it back. Blew a bunch of ‘your’ money on a crap design (end to end) and you don’t like it? Tough. We the State are gonna spend even more to “fix” it. You don’t like that either? Too Bad.

Typical bureaucrats. They like to think that they are just as good and as smart as ‘real’ businessmen, but the real fact is they are not. It would seem that they have developed a real fancy and efficient warehouse. A SINGLE warehouse for an entire state because it’s so much more efficient you see.

A ‘real’ businessman would have set up his distribution system to function EFFECTIVELY first and then applied the cost-saving measures. But no, these idiots decided to cut to the chase and install the most effective machine without making sure that the whole system worked beforehand. Did any of these state employees bother to think of the impact of say a warehouse fire or water main break or long term power failure? Of course not. But why not, you might ask. The answer lies with who the real customers are. If you answer that the public buying the booze is the customer, you would be sadly oh-so-wrong.

The first question is ‘Who are your customers?’ In a real business, the public customer is king, because without the money that they spend, the company goes out of business. The bureaucrat does not give a fig if you ever spend a dime in the state owned liquor store because his motivation is not to you, but rather his bosses up the state org chart. In fact, if no one ever spent another dime in state owned store, the state overlords would be thrilled, as more irritation to the smooth running of government would be gone. You, the public, are a mere interference in thier well-oiled machine.

So, good denizens of Washington (the State), you are presented with a choice. Suck it up and hope that your State Overlords will improve the system -or- throw them out.

By: State Liquor Stores

State Liquor Stores — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:17:55 +0000

[...] Reynolds points to a story by Doug Winship about Washington State’s liquor stores running out of, um, liquor just in time for the July [...]

By: fred suggs

fred suggs — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:20:52 +0000

Michigan does a pretty good job distributing liquor through the Michigan Liquor Control Commission stores that wholesale booze to retailers so the MLCC can put on their tax stamps and collect the state’s fees. As far as I know they do a pretty good job and stores are well stocked.

Not long ago, liquor sales were somewhat deregulated in that the MLCC now allows retailers to set their own prices for distilled spirits as well as advertise booze.

The reality is that thanks to George Romney and the 1963 Michigan Constitution, the state is actually well run, regardless of which party is in power in Lansing.

Still, the Washington state liquor system shows how when it comes to operating businesses, most government agencies are out of their leagues.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:19:05 +0000

I don’t understand how this happened. The old USSR had no trouble getting vodka to its masses. How else did they keep the masses from revolting? In the USA, we just allow all forms of sexual heodonism to control the folks and help destroy any inconvenient offspring.