The election is over and the tallies are in. The people of this good state have voted NOT to allow us citizens to be able to purchase wine (and only wine - not beer, not liquor) at grocery stores. I don't know whether I'm surprised or not surprised that what seems like such a trivial convenience was not voted through. Traditional values? Tradition yes, values I doubt. When I first moved out here to Massachusetts, one could only buy alcohol (buy for take-home, not at like a bar or restaurant) at a bone fide liquor store. You can't get beer or anything at the grocery store or the 7-11 like you can in Cali. Furthermore, when I first moved out here, they were forced to be closed on Sundays and if I recall correctly they closed rather early on Saturdays. It's one of what's known as a "blue law" and sadly, it's rather common on the east coast. Fortunately, there was a change and now they are open on Sundays and to a fair hour on other days.
So the next step was to maybe reduce the monopoly just a bit by allowing just wine to be sold at grocery stores... for the sake of convenience. Just wine mind you. You still wouldn't be able to get beer or liquor at the grocery store. Just wine. That quintessential dining drink. Makes sense to get it with your groceries for a nice well planned out dinner without having to make a separate stop. I was talking with someone who was telling me about the big campaign against letting grocery stores sell wine. Something to do with access to children, increasing the sale and consumption of alcohol, yada yada. Wine is definitely a potent drink but it doesn't have the social connotations in this country as beer and other liquors in terms of abuse by underage drinkers. Strictly an emotional appeal of course and probably funded by liquor store owners who are trying to protect their sales. I'd someday like to see a truth-in-advertising/campaigning law where the commercials were forced to find clever ways to say "don't pass this law, it cuts into our sales".
Nothing else I can do about it I guess. Business as usual. Waste a little gas and make a separate trip to the liquor store to stock up as I had been. Just a little bugged because what with the weather and roads out here, as if there wasn't enough about Massachusetts that makes life inconvenient, couldn't they have just let us be able to pick up a bottle of red along with pasta and sauce?
6 comments:
Thane, this law does surprise me. Alcohol is alcohol, whether it’s beer, wine or hard liquor. If the younger generation is their concern, you would think it would be the opposite of them selling wine at grocery and not liquor stores considering social connotations commercials are geared more towards beer and hard liquor, not wine.
it's pretty interesting that one cannot purchase alcohol at grocery stores out there, seeing as how mass. is what, the third drunkest city in the us?
at least, that's what someone told me...
Melissa,
I wonder if Alaska is the first? My cousin that resides there said all the people do is drink. Considering your in the middle of the wilderness I guess there is nothing else to do.
Thane, perhaps you could provide me with a glass of "water"...
for you screg, i'll even put it in a large shot glass.
Oh, I lived in PA for two years, and you had to go to one store for wine and hard spirits, another for beer, and then your grocery for food. And the grocery stores sucked so badly that you often had to go to 2 or sometimes even 3 to get everything on your grocery list. Then I moved back to CA, and I can once again see a whole beautiful aisle in the grocery store of wine, beer, and liquor. The selection at Safeway is about 10 times better than the state stores in PA, too.
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