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House Bill 1100 would allow Texans to purchase liquor on Sundays


Goo Punch

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2 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

TABC issued their annual FAQ booklet earlier this year -  80-something pages.  If it takes more than 80 pages to address frequently asked questions, the industry might be slightly over-regulated.

What pisses me off is that very few of the regulations are actually consumer/ public safety oriented.  For the most part, they are for controlling revenue and who is allowed what profits and how the pie is divided.  

 

Fuck that.

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42 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Many Texas grocery stores wouldn't even have the space to accommodate liquor sales.  Obviously a great deal of it is modular, but as the HEB GM once said, "If the family allowed us to sell liquor, I'll propose the gluten-free aisle as the first to go."  

When Lubbock went wet, the grocery stores all adjusted to new consumer demands.

If Texas grocers want to see how it's done, Louisiana would be a fantastic starting point.

They do not fuck around when it comes to booze.

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1 minute ago, Llano Estacado said:

 


RIP - The Strip

 

Fuck those people for promoting laws in the name of morality when it was a financial play the whole fucking time.

 

The Strip was unique and absolutely a big part of the Tech experience back then, but FUCK THEM!!!

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3 hours ago, Victorious1 said:

another needed alcohol law reform needed:  drinking in public before noon.

We were at the beach in Port A one weekend and started popping the tops around 11am on Sunday and the local law enforcement paid us a visit.  Luckily he just made us pour out the open containers and said to wait another 20 minutes until noon but he could have written us up.

Damn, it seems I have dodged a warehouse worth of bullets in my time.

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6 hours ago, 6th Street said:

Why can't you buy liquor at the grocery stores or Walgreens in Texas? This isn't an issue anywhere else

Shit, we just got full strength beer in grocery stores and convenience stores on Jan 1 of this year in CO.  Wine and liquor in liquor stores only out here.  Lots of states have fucked liquor laws.

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6 hours ago, utee94 said:

That's not entirely true, I believe Pennsylvania also has crazy liquor laws.  In fact as I recall, they're even crazier, because you can only buy liquor in state-owned stores there, but you can't buy beer in those same state-owned liquor stores. 

Yep.  If you want booze, the liquor stores are state owned.  You can buy beer at other stores, but I think they might still have dry counties as well.  I remember driving pretty far for some beer.

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Want to buy beer in Indiana?  Go anywhere (grocery, drug, liquor store, convenience).  Want cold beer in Indiana?  Liquor stores are your only choice. When the law to sell beer beyond just liquor stores was finally inevitable, the liquor stores lobbied to retain the right to be the only outlets to sell cold beer.  Just exceedingly stupid and frustrating for the consumer.  

And the Sunday liquor sales is (even if they aren’t publicly out front) heavily influenced by Total Wine and More.  Their M/O is to move in to a market and then sue the shit out of the state and lobby like crazy to get laws passed/changed that benefit their model (minimum pricing, quantity discounts due to their buying power, etc..depending on what is blocking them in that state.  See what they did in CT).  Of course, Twins/Specs are on board as well, but once Total gets involved it has a whole new level of momentum and support 

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^
that's insane.  Not being sarcastic, but is there anything that prevents a corner store from just keeping a few cases behind the store in a fenced in/protected area and letting the miserable winters just take hold of the beer and make it cold?  And they can just say, "couldn't be helped governor, we had no more room inside the store so as to still maintain clear aisles for our patrons in accordance with the regulations.  So we let these folks pay for a case and take it off the pallet out back. "  

 

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Dumb question amnesty on the cold beer laws: Is that old blue law stuff? MADD thing to try and prevent roadies? Industry lobby?

That was always curious to me.

“You can’t buy them all times of the day, but when you’re ready, we’ve got two Icehouse tallboys for $3. Ready with brown paper bags so you can half-ass discreetly get them out the door and behind the wheel.”

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44 minutes ago, Lobo said:

^
that's insane.  Not being sarcastic, but is there anything that prevents a corner store from just keeping a few cases behind the store in a fenced in/protected area and letting the miserable winters just take hold of the beer and make it cold?  And they can just say, "couldn't be helped governor, we had no more room inside the store so as to still maintain clear aisles for our patrons in accordance with the regulations.  So we let these folks pay for a case and take it off the pallet out back. "  

 

Good point.  I wouldn’t be surprised if that takes place, but that would end up being for a tiny amount of consumers.  The law is about beer in coolers, so I’m sure plenty of ways to get cute and get around it

41 minutes ago, Llano Estacado said:

Dumb question amnesty on the cold beer laws: Is that old blue law stuff? MADD thing to try and prevent roadies? Industry lobby?

That was always curious to me.

“You can’t buy them all times of the day, but when you’re ready, we’ve got two Icehouse tallboys for $3. Ready with brown paper bags so you can half-ass discreetly get them out the door and behind the wheel.”

Cold beer was 100% industry lobby.  The initial blue laws had liquor, beer and wine only for sale in package (liquor) stores.  When that loosened and beer/wine was going to be made available everywhere, the liquor lobby put enough money in to get that little caveat about cold beer still to them only passed through

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Even though you can buy cold beer in Texas at a grocery or liquor store, a store or a restaurant is not allowed to have an outdoor sign that states the words "Cold Beer."  The theory is they don't want folks to be somehow "induced" into consuming the devil's brew.  Genius. 

The TABC got blistered in the Sunset Review prepared for the current legislative session.  It begins with:

"Even though more than 80 years have passed since the end of Prohibition, in many ways, Texas still regulates the alcoholic beverage industry as if it were 1935."

https://www.sunset.texas.gov/public/uploads/files/reports/Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Staff Report_10-31-18.pdf

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Dumb question amnesty on the cold beer laws: Is that old blue law stuff? MADD thing to try and prevent roadies? Industry lobby?

 

That was always curious to me.

 

“You can’t buy them all times of the day, but when you’re ready, we’ve got two Icehouse tallboys for $3. Ready with brown paper bags so you can half-ass discreetly get them out the door and behind the wheel.”

 

I used to naively wonder all the time why people were sitting in parking lots drinking beer, seeing as they all seemed littered with dead soldiers...over time I’ve come to realize that’s probably not what’s really happening, and also why gas stations have beer on ice by 7am every day.

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 I remember the aisles of the big hardware store being roped off on Sundays too. It's a throwback law that has ceased to have meaning for most people.  The TABC should be wholly remade. I hope they sunset the hell out of them. 

Now, if they'd only get around to legalization of a certain leafy green plant while they are down in Austin legislating that would be fine too.

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I cannot think of a single VALID reason to keep any of these blue laws on the books. But lobbyists keep paying off our state reps and nobody seems to give a shit:

1. No liquor sales on Sunday/no beer or wine until noon on Sunday

2. No liquor in grocery/convenience stores.

3. All alcohol sales must go through a distributor (pointless middle man) who takes a fat cut as a delivery service (sometimes) and drives up the price to the end consumer. 

4. No direct sale of new automobiles; must go through dealerships

 

my #5 is casino gambling and sports betting, but others might have some compelling arguments about making these legal. However #1-4 frustrate the fuck out of me. This is Texas damn it. 

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Last legislative session (2017), several local breweries kissed the ring and went along with some bullshit new beer/wine laws that protected distributors because they thought they’d get more favorable laws for tap room sales, etc. and/or only “mega breweries” would be punished. ERRRRRRR WRONG! And yet the “3 tier system” continues.....

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54 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

 I remember the aisles of the big hardware store being roped off on Sundays too. It's a throwback law that has ceased to have meaning for most people.  The TABC should be wholly remade. I hope they sunset the hell out of them. 

Now, if they'd only get around to legalization of a certain leafy green plant while they are down in Austin legislating that would be fine too.

The Gibson's in Denton had 3/4 of the store roped off on Sundays.

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5 hours ago, Trey3216 said:

They changed those laws about 2 years ago if I'm not mistaken

Perhaps they have, but about 18 months ago I was in southern Pennsylvania and the laws were still in place. Only state owned (or franchised) liquor stores can sell alcohol. Fuck me, I have to go there to get a bottle of wine to go with my steak?! Our friends work in Delaware (no tax on alcohol?) and always shop for booze over there on their lunch breaks. Kind of like the county line used to be in east Dallas, right across the Delaware state line are rows of liquor stores. Our friends reported people frequently getting pulled over by Pennsylvania cops that park in the Delaware liquor store parking lots and follow cars with Penn license plates home. As soon as you cross back into Pennsylvania, they light you up for bootlegging. Bootlegging! In this day and age! Over some fucking bud light and a bottle of Crown!

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Just now, Murfdogg21 said:

Perhaps they have, but about 18 months ago I was in southern Pennsylvania and the laws were still in place. Only state owned (or franchised) liquor stores can sell alcohol. Fuck me, I have to go there to get a bottle of wine to go with my steak?! Our friends work in Delaware (no tax on alcohol?) and always shop for booze over there on their lunch breaks. Kind of like the county line used to be in east Dallas, right across the Delaware state line are rows of liquor stores. Our friends reported people frequently getting pulled over by Pennsylvania cops that park in the Delaware liquor store parking lots and follow cars with Penn license plates home. As soon as you cross back into Pennsylvania, they light you up for bootlegging. Bootlegging! In this day and age! Over some fucking bud light and a bottle of Crown!

I was in PA at thanksgiving and you could buy beer at gas stations and at the Liqour store.   But the old State store was def in place when I was there 3-4 years back. 

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2 minutes ago, RPM said:

The Gibson's in Denton had 3/4 of the store roped off on Sundays.

I still remember asking my dad about it. It didn't make any sense as a little kid. By the time I understood the concept of dry counties and blue laws I was watching the struggle of Abilene going wet. 

That good old boy in the parking lot of a liquor store in Impact on the local news saying, "Shut off that camera." sticks with me.

 

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9 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

Not complaining. But, if I start firing at ripe targets I don't want the negs for CRing up the News section. 

The "ripe targets" for this discussion are the lobbies paying off the politicians to uphold antiquated laws, and the politicians themselves who allow themselves to be bought.  Feel free to take all the shots at them that you want, many people already have.  If you choose to take it beyond that to further some personal agenda, then you should definitely prepare for the negative consequences.

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