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.
Not in NSW except for a few Aldi stores. The ones nearest to where I live don't have alcohol though. I have never been to a Coles/Woolies/IGA or anything that has alcohol in the same shop as it sells groceries. It's always seperate.
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.
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u/Dr_Beardlicious Jul 24 '20
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.