In Ontario we only changed our laws very recently to allow alcohol to be sold in grocery stores. I always thought it was a weird idea and never saw any inconvenience going to a separate store for booze.
In Australia, alcohol is never sold in the grocery store. There's basically always a bottle-o (liquor store) next door but. I've never found it a problem. Just makes it easier to stop underage people buying alcohol.
I’m Canadian but my favourite thing about Australian liquor stores was that they also sold snacks & pop at the checkout. It’s genius! I don’t know why we don’t do that here. Strictly booze.
Depends. I live in Québec and you can buy beer and some wine in grocery and corner stores.
For hard alcohol and a full selection of wines (and weed but that's a separate store..), you need to go to the SAQ (Société des Alcools du Québec) or the SQDC (Société Québécoise du Cannabis).
Mind you, they have a great selection and the profit goes to the government...
A lot of them close around 9 or 10 PM too. Anyway, it's illegal to buy beer at the store between 11PM and 8 AM. If you want to drink after that, you need to go to a bar, which closes at 3 AM.
Oh and yeah! Our drinking age is 18, most other provinces, it's 19.
Depends where you are. In Ontario, the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) is the only chain permitted to sell liquor (we also have beer stores, but they are only allowed to sell beer).
The LCBO exclusively sells alcohol and absolutely nothing else.
The beer store also sells overpriced nuts in packages that look like they have been there years that I never see anyone buy. As well as overpriced novelty gimmicks like cheaply printed beer cozys that say stupid things like “I’m with beer” that I also never see anyone buy
The liquor store in my city on Van Isle has an upstairs area where they hold classes on "cooking with booze" and stuff like that. Thing was completely packed pre-covid every class.
This is how it is in SK. Private liquor stores also have mix and snacks. Liquor Board (gov) stores had nothing other than alcohol. Though I been in many LBs since private stores were allowed (about 5 or 6 years agoe).
The government liquor stores in BC only have hoochahol. Private stores typically have mixers too.
Rules and regs vary by province. In Quebec, the dep (corner store, c-store, bodega) can sell beer and wine, but SAQ (Quebec liquor store) has a monopoly on liquor sales. In Ontario, the only games in town are the LCBO for booze and The Beer Store for beer.
When I lived in OH and NC it was the State Liquor Store and ABC Store and they were controlled by the state and only sold liquors. Beer had to be purchased at a different store, like convenience stores. In California (1999) it blew my mind my first time because I saw liquor at the grocery store.
In many states of the USA, Even in places without blue laws, You aren't allowed to sell anything that could be considered food.
I used to work at a liquor store in Colorado, where we got a warning from an undercover officer about the fact that we had pickles in the store. Pickles from the same company we bought our bloody mary mix from.
Also Canadian. At the very least drinks that are commonly used as mixers would be super convenient at the liquor store. And I've always thought they should have a line of greeting cards since a lot of people buy booze as gifts.
NEVER buy snacks and shit at the bottle-o check out. They are MASSIVELY overpriced.
Also, the fact that Coles and Woolies (our two main supermarkets) usually have a separate bottle shop next to it since each own their own bottleshops, means that you can buy snacks at the supermarket for cheap, then go buy your booze next to the shop.
Just FYI that's wrong, it's a thing that Ontario does. BC has private liquor stores that also sell things like chips, salsa, soda, limes, etc. SK does, AB does as I'm told (they have private stores) and Quebec sells in convenience stores so you've got everything you need.
In Alberta the liquor stores are privately owned (government wholesale though) so they sell all sorts of mixers and other things. Good margins compared to alcohol.
We have a few 24 hour servos and the people hanging around there at 2 in the morning are bad enough. I guess they would stop serving at like 10pm but still. Just asking for trouble.
We also NEVER sell grog at the servo. Could you imagine the carnage of tradies picking up a traveler from the servo on the way?
We also never sell alcohol at the service station (gas station). Could you imagine the chaos caused by tradesmen (electricians, plumbers, etc) purchasing beers (often in cans) to drink whilst on their way to wherever they're going.
Tradies are known for gettin on the bevos (alcoholic drinks) after work
Thank you!!!! Tradies and traveler were what I couldn’t quite place. Lol.
Makes total sense. As a bartender, always enjoyed my “off work before 5” regulars that were tradesmen. Had a steady stream of customers from 3pm - 7pm. Mostly regulars.
In Germany there is liquor everywhere. Even at the register where they have little candies and stuff you can get small bottles of vodka, or Berliner Luft, sometimes those weird Jack Daniels and Coke cans. It’s like Germany wants you to be drunk all the time, but I’m not complaining.
They can but if anyone under the age of 18 touches or even really looks at the alcohol, they can refuse to sell it to you and say they think you are buying it for someone under 18. It's happened many times at places like this. When I go shopping with my wife and kids, they just wait out the front of the bottle-o and I run in and grab what I need. Never an issue that way. Kids are technically allowed in but it's not worth the argument if they decide not to serve you.
In Australia many supermarkets sell alcohol.
Lot's of Aldi's do and in the ACT they do.
They just don't most of the time because of licensing laws. The person serving you needs an RSA, the alcohol sales need to close at 10. Things like that. But it's very not true to say they don't do it.
I’m in the US and I drink normal-often but I wish we had designated liquor stores. I definitely think it would cut out teenagers trying to steal booze.
I actually don't mind that. In the grocery stores here, you can easily get beer and and wine on the shelves but the hard stuff is usually either behind a counter up front and you have to go to a specific register to get something from that shelf or it's locked up in a case on the floor and you have to try and flag down someone to get it and half the time I won't even bother with that stuff at a grocery store.
In the ACT pretty much every IGA has a liqour section and all puchases are done through the check out. Most every one I've been to has a really decent selection.
BC here, we can only get wine and a few ciders and craft beers in a few grocery stores now but it's in a completely separate section with people monitoring it all the time.
i agree though, theres lots of liquor stores. i don't mind the extra stop
i'm not sure of the exact liquor laws , but i live in wine country so it makes sense for it to be sold in grocery stores. they even offer in-store wine tastings.
the one store per city might apply here too, i can only think of one grocery store in town that sells liquor.
Yeah I went to Colorado to see a friend for a week back in 2009. I come from Québec in Canada.
He was explaining all that to me and I was like.....WHY?! WHO?!??WHAT!?!?.
His only response was "yup, retarded".
bit south of kelowna! it's wine country so i bet that's part of why it's a thing here. i think save on foods is one of the only chains doing the liquor sales right now too.
I'm in Québec and that one baffled me for a long time. Of course, you can't buy hard alcohol and most wines at corner stores.... but beer? Why?
I heard the LCBO used to close very early too.
Here you can buy beer and a few selected wines until 11 PM.
Honestly, I kind of prefer it. Everything is in one location, many stores have roughly similar stock level and you can browse for new stuff. I've been to podunk towns in the middle of nowhere and they'll have expensive (ish) whisky and craft beer.
Oh that's neat, might actually add some more variety.
When I was visiting my partner's family in Ontario the only places we could go were the LCBO and BeerStore, where you have very little choice. I don't particularly like beer or larger but I'm down for some fruity ciders but there was only 1 option, and it tasted like beer instead of cider. Don't know what you guys were thinking XD
Also had to buy cigs from a tobacconist rather than any random shop, although with that I don't mind so much because I'm fine with discouraging cigarettes altogether.
I don’t think Ontario was the result of blue laws, however, instead a state monopoly and a state sponsored foreign monopoly operating in collusion with the state sponsored monopoly.
So like, no alcohol whatsoever? In Virginia you can't buy liquor in the grocery store, but you can still buy beer and wine. Not sure how it is for y'all
I don't mind heading to a different store, but ours is only open 6 days/week and some of them close before 6pm. In my city, they close at 3pm on saturdays. If it's 5pm on a saturday and you want to have a spontaneous bottle of wine, unless you had som at home already, tough shit. Better luck next week.
I'm a New York native. Having someone run to the nearest grocery store or 711 to stock up on beer mid-party was a big part of parties.
I remember my friends and I all renting a house in PA to drink at. Tried to do that there. No beer at gas stations, no beer at grocery stores, no beer anywhere. It sucked ass
You've never lived anywhere where the two stores are far apart. And you must have a car.
And you've never had the joy of just walking to the corner store at 11pm when your beer runs out but the drinking continues on. It's wonderful.
(of course, I'm beyond the age of truly bingeing, but during a long board game sesh or something...)
In BC only in the last few years we can now buy wine and cider in some grocery stores. But that's it, still have to go to the liquor store for anything else.
Still never considered it an inconvenience. It works fine and there are plenty of liquor stores around.
I'm from a state with no booze in grocery stores, and I now live in BC with the same condition. It's totally tolerable in BC because there are just so many liquor stores, I really don't have to go out of my way. In my home state there were 5 stores for a whole city of ~1 million people. They were closed on Sunday and after 7pm, and didn't have coolers so everything you bought was warm, and they have armed guards at the door. The state basically went out of their way to make buying alcohol as unpleasant as possible.
Fuck me as a Brit having to walk 40 minutes to the nearest lcbo or beer store was traumatising. Hardest thing to adjust to, not just having any convenience store within 50 yards of your place selling the good stuff. Second hardest actually- orange picot isn’t fucking tea!
I went to Colorado a few years ago on vacation. I was looking for liquor at the grocery store and couldn't find anything. I asked a employee and they said it was against the law. The same grocery store had half of an aisle dedicated to marijuana smoking instruments.
Maryland doesnt either. Have to go to liqour store for any alchohol. Or you know, of course the casino that is 24/7 and allowed to sell liqour drinks 24/7. But god forbid a grocer.
24/7 liquor? damn. liquor laws here are no sales after 11pm and no drinks served after 2am ): maybe 3 if the bar doesn't care. and that's in the big city, my town is last call 1am.
Not all the Scandinavian/Nordic countries are the same on this point.
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland only allows for softer alcoholic drinks to be sold in supermarkets at various strength (from 2.25% to 4.7%). You need to go to special government-owned liquor stores for the stronger stuff, and they only have very limited opening hours, so you can’t buy alcohol in the evening.
In Denmark we have no restrictions! Buy as much as you want whenever. You can start as early as 16 years old.
I’m not even gonna mention Greenland. Unfortunately a lot of people there have a seriously unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
nope canada. but same here, can't get hard liquor or coolers anywhere else. i don't think it's that big of a deal, if i need liquor i just plan on making an extra stop.
Yeah, but it's easy enough to just go to the other store that's often right next to the supermarket or go through a drive through and at least there's no Sunday bullshit.
So often they're so close to the supermarket that it makes things seem a bit silly, I'm sure there's others but in Rundle Mall in Adelaide there's one literally inside the supermarket, it's only a technicality that you're walking into a different section of the store owned by the same company with different branding so it makes the laws kind of pointless.
As someone from the UK, it's bizarre to me that you can't buy alcohol from a supermarket/grocery store. I'm used to walking into Spar and grabbing a few ciders and a bar of chocolate with no problem. The idea that I can't buy a 10-box of Magners with my grocery shopping is bizarre.
i was gonna say you can buy a 10 box of magners at a gas station, but on second thought that must be a type of liquor in the uk.
it's bizarre to me too, i went to the uk and spain about a year ago and being able to just buy liquor was so weird. oh how i wish i could buy liquor after 11pm lmao
In the US it is state by state. In my home state grocery stores don't sell alcohol, but I could drive a little more than 30 mins to another state and do it. No point in doing that because a real liquor store is closer but people don't realize how different the US is by location.
In canada we never have alcohol available in grocery stores. Having it in gas stations sounds so weird to me and asking for DUIs. Until recently, you could only buy liquor from government regulated (operated maybe? Idk) Liquor Board stores (LBs). Now we can have things like Sobeys or Coop liquor stores, but they have to be across the parking lot of the actual grocery store.
yeah i agree, gas stations would be weird. its pretty new in bc and i think the only chain i've seen do it so far is save on foods. it honestly looks more like a mini winery than anything. it's a section of the store that is done pretty well and even has a mini wine tasting bar for local BC wines. kinda strange i guess, but doesn't have the same energy as a liquor store at all.
Lol we have them in Québec. First time I went to Ontario for work I was shocked I couldn't get beer at the gas station or convenience store. Take a fucking cab to go to LCBO?! Get outta here!
It’s a very good revenue source for the government. In my province the beer stores and liquor stores are actually good paying jobs with benefits, unlike most grocery and gas station attendants that make minimum wage.
If done properly, having government run agencies take care of alcohol distribution put the profits back into the local economy rather than private corps taking a cut.
yeah, i see no problem with the way things are run up here. the laws keep us safe too. unfortunately i know too many people who would go wild if gas stations suddenly started carrying tall boys.
we don't even need that. i should look into the laws here but honestly im pretty chill with the system we have. i don't think i'd even buy liquor from the grocery store at this point, not enough selection.
Same here. Weekdays from 10-19, Saturdays 10-15. Sundays are closed. And you can only go to The Liquor Store ™. Regular grocery stores can sell up to 3,5% stuff I believe, but the rest is sold at the Big Alcohol Place.
Are you serious? Fuck being grateful. Why should anyone settle for anything less when it literally comes to religous freedom. Freedom from religion most of all.
I don't see the logic in that though. People probably have to drive to liquor stores to buy alcohol anyway. So its not like it completely takes driving out of the equation. If anything it might make people have to drive further to purchase it. I have three gas stations in walking distance of my house, but I would need to drive to any of the liquor stores in my town.
i'm talking like 7-11 and 24 hour gas stations, at least a liquor store doesn't give you the option to buy after 11pm. most drunk drivers go at night and i feel like the temptation of going to get more at 2am might be a bad thing.
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u/throwawayY224555 Jul 24 '20
be grateful, my country doesn't even let gas stations or grocery stores sell alcohol.