"Washington state opened a public auction online Thursday of its state-run liquor stores, beginning the process of privatizing a booze industry the state has tightly controlled since the end of Prohibition.
Within hours, more than 30 bidders had entered the fray. Nearly a dozen offered to buy rights to all of the stores, though most bid on individual store locations.
Yeah and the all stores thing scares me. The existing sites are the only ones that can be under 10,000sf. If they go to chains… what do you think happens to selection? And price?
If California - where liquor is available everywhere including supermarkets, drug stores, Trader Joe’s and Costco - is an example, selection improves and price goes down.
Yeah, except that’s not the law we have. Liquor won’t be sold at all of those places.
The limitation is that stores wanting to sell hard liquor MUST be over 10,000sf. The only exceptions are existing stores and places where there’s no facility large enough within some distance (I think 20 miles). The latter exemption is specifically for smaller communities - it will never be true in the Seattle area. So, for those of us in the Puget Sound region it’s large places (gee, that benefits Costco… oh WAIT…) or whoever takes over existing store sites. I don’t give a rat’s ass if I can get half gallons of Monarch vodka cheaply… the only real advantage of this law for me is improved selection which is why I’d like to see the stores sold piecemeal - hopefully some will be the equivalent of a wine shop.
Note, too, that the law was written to be revenue neutral. One of the sticking points of the first try at this was that the state would lose a fair chunk of change by privatizing so this version adds new taxes etc. I’ll believe in lower prices on good booze when I see them.
Fine… Revenue neutral over the long haul. The entire point of that language was to avoid the 'we’re in a budget crisis and you want to take revenue AWAY?" objection. If anyone’s expecting prices to drop from this, they’re kidding themselves.
Ohh a ‘love it or leave it’ reply. From someone who’s not even a citizen of my state… That’s rich.
Did you miss all of the whining and bitching in the original thread on this initiative about how the government sucked and is incompetent? I found your comment amusing, that’s all.
Are you usually this dense steven? I thought your post was funny in light of the prior thread. I wasn’t ridiculing you. But hey, if you want to be a humorless dick feel free. But telling me to leave if i don’t like it from SOMEONE WHO DOESNT LIVE HERE? Thats just idiotic.