Coming very soon to a Safeway near you...

[Big D]

[TroutSnipr]

Woot! Haven't seen the promised land since I lived in Cali back in the 90's. Viva La Revolucion!

[Gonefishing]

I heard that... and for an added bonus you will pay up to 35% more for the same stuff you could buy when the state managed it.

Woo Hoo.

[yooper_fisher]

I heard that... and for an added bonus you will pay up to 35% more for the same stuff you could buy when the state managed it.

Woo Hoo.

Is this true? I assumed the prices would go down, or at least stay level. I haven't done much research on this, but I am glad I can get it at my local grocery now.

[Gonefishing]

OK I didn't quote the whole article. 15 - 35%. Costco will actually be less but they have more buying power than other small restaurants and stores.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... uor27.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The one I don't like is the fact that some stores like QFC aren't going to allow competition with other establishments of the same shopping centers (in some cases).

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... prmid=4939" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MarkFromSea]

I heard it is still under some judicial review of wrongdoing when it hit the ballot, having two items on the ballot, the wording was questionable.......?????? some such.......... I think it's now here to stay but look for it on the ballot again if the courts overturn a portion of that new law...... IMHO

[Amx]

that crap is already in the safeway store where I shop. talk about a waste of space and even MORE drunks in the store.

[MarkFromSea]

that crap is already in the safeway store where I shop. talk about a waste of space and even MORE drunks in the store.

I concur! At least in the short term, look for an increase in drunks behind the wheel this summer. A lot of those drunks controlled their drinking by not visiting the liquor store..... The biggest winners in this may very well be the lowest of low life, "lawyers".

[natetreat]

There will be nore more drunks than there already are. Most drunk driving happens to and from the bar, the party etc. Liquor from the liquor store, liquor from safeway will make no difference. The government has no business selling liquor. It's not their job, it's not their function and it's wasteful and stupid. Those who don't drink, and don't believe in it, should be happy that there tax dollars are no longer supporting the sale of hard alcohol. There will be competition in the market, as well as increased selection. State run liquor stores have two or three top shelf brands, now we will be able to get a lot more good liquor. Micro-distillery bourbon and gin, better scotch and gin. That's what I'm excited about. Prices may start out high, but in the long run they will drop dramatically. Having lived in Memphis and Cali where booze is cheaper and not state run, the difference in price and selection is astronomical compared to Washington's previous antique system. Liquor in Washington barely turned a profit at all, the stores aren't open on sundays or late enough to be convienient for anyone. I'm too old to go to the bar for my drinks, when I run out of the good stuff and the store is closed. My stepfather is a DUI attorney, and if there are more DUI's then he'll do better, which is a good thing. And an abundance of DUI's in the first few months will get more drivers off the road that don't deserve to be on the road in the first place. Anyone who makes the decision to drive drunk is going to drive drunk regardless of whether they bought their booze at Costco, the bar or the liquor store. And they deserve jail time and driving privileges revoked. I'm super stoked to buy booze at Safeway! It's not only the right thing to do to privatize booze, it's going to be awesome!

[Bodofish]

And the promise was not to jerk businesses from the folks who contracted with the state to run its liquor stores, they were all allowed to bid on the spots and stores. Many of them won the auctions fair and square and put up many thousands, some nearly a 1/2 mill. to secure their retail space and deals with wholesalers, insurance companies, renovators and advertisers. Now the state has just decided to take those spots away, after the award and give them to a large group that has cherry picked locations and made an ouside offer to the state skirting the published process. We will be paying millions in legal fees to right this wrong. Once again shame on the State. Shame on Costco for the greed and shame on all the fools that were duped into voting for their plan. Personally, I'm glad everyone will be paying more, it will be a lesson well learned. Costco's 5% below previous prices will be short lived and they will raise their prices as it is the name of the retail game.

[Bodofish]

PS: After a conversation with the local Safeway store manager, I'm quite dismayed at the cavalier approach to liquor sales and protection. I've personally handed over a dozen shop lifters to the store manager who is the only store security, more, I might add than anyone that works there. A couple days ago I asked how they planned on protecting the shelves from the kids who shop lift all too frequently. His first response was they didn't have a shop lifting problem. After I reminded him of the problem he refused acknowledge, he offered that they have a video system to watch the aisle (and the other aisles for that matter.). When I asked if he had anyone assigned to watch the monitors, the answer was no, there was no budget for that. When I asked how he expected and un-monitored video system to protect them from shoplifters and us from kids who will be doing the shoplifting and getting drunk and damaging everything they come in contact with. His response was, staffing is done by corporate policy and no one is budgeted to monitor the system. It's funny, when he delivered that little tid bit, his face dropped any emotion and went deadpan, what I like to call corporate mode. It reminded me of someone who was, "just following orders.". I believe there was a trial a number of years ago that covered quite a number of people that were just following orders.

Nuremberg.

Man how I just love big Corporations and their infinite wisdom.

[Amx]

As I was talking to a store worker the other week, she said their store security people are dressed just like 'normal' people, including kids with earrings and all that.

[MarkFromSea]

As I was talking to a store worker the other week, she said their store security people are dressed just like 'normal' people, including kids with earrings and all that.

It's funny you should mention that, the plain clothes guy routinely follows me at the local Freddies. When I spot him, I take him for a tour of the entire store......... LMAO If I have the time........ I must look like a redneck or something.

As for the alcohol, I haven't drank in 13+ years for good reason. I speak from experience paid for many times over. This is a bad thing! I'm not even going to explain it other than when that first, innocent, legal, responsible, WA resident who may be your neighbor, family member or friend is maimed or killed because hard liquor is now more easily accessible, THAT one incident, that one death, my friends, would be the only reason that this should not have been allowed to happen. I'm for less government in most cases, this isn't one of them.

The cork is out of the bottle, enjoy it, let's see what you think in a year or five years time.

[TroutSnipr]

I've lived in Cali where it's been the way it's going to be here now (private liquor sales except every little store can sell booze not just 10,000+ sqft establishments) and in the Philly 'burbs, where they don't even sell beer in the grocery store. You pull in these little concrete type garages and tell the guy what you want, you pay him and he has to lock it in your trunk or put it in the truck bed because you can't even carry a closed container in the passenger compartment. I have not seen any difference in the amount of drunk driving asshats, booze shoplifting teenagers, or people walking down the street with a bottle in a paper bag. it's all just scare tactics like most of the politically motivated news media drivel you hear on a daily basis. My $.02

[natetreat]

Just for a little perspective as to whether or not this will impact drunk driving, let's look at the statistics from 2009:

California, with it's lax liquor laws, readily accessible alcohol and a population of 37,691,912 had a total of 3,081 traffic deaths. Out off all the traffic deaths, 950 were drunk driving related.

In Washington, we have a population of 6,724,540, 492 crash deaths and 206, or 42% of those were booze related.

California, with it's private liquor has less drunk driving deaths than Washington, per capita. Booze is not evil, it's not the devil and if we keep it legal, it should be freely available. If there are drunk drivers, stupid kids that drink and shoplift, this is a problem that needs to be addressed outside of thise issue. Stricter DUI punishments. Strip their license for two years instead of 90 days. If kids get caught shoplifting or drinking, put them in jail for a week and fine their parents 2 grand. Punk kids and reckless drivers are the problem, not booze. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Crack down on the problem, don't punish the law abiding citizen, marginalize the function of government and incur a mass of debt at the expense of my tax dollars. The problem of drunk driving is because of a weak and pathetic government too lazy to punish the criminals who make the decision to endanger us by backing up our courts for years, allowing judges to make stupid plea deals, and by not financing our local police departments with enough cheddar to keep patrol cars out on the street to protect us. What they need to do is to take those new straight up profit fees that they're getting from the deal and hire new judges, cops and court personnel. And we need to make it known to kids that if they drink and drive, steal booze and raise hell, that they will be in big trouble, and so will their parents. If a kid gets banged for possession, take away his drivers license for a few years. Charge drunk drivers with attempted manslaughter and reckless endangerment, or even simply vehicular assault, not a measly DUI. It should be a felony. But regardless of how easy it is to get booze, these folks will be driving and drinking and drinking anyway. There's really no difference between shoplifting a bottle of 2 star or a rack of beer. Not to mention that every teenager knows at least one friend who knows someone that is 21 to buy them booze in the first place. And teens have been drinking since before prohibition and they're not going to stop now, unless we make better parents.

[urbanangler]

Well-said, Nate. Thank you.

[BentRod]

Well written nate. 100% agreement.

[Bodofish]

I lived back and forth between here CA and AK for a period of about ten years. I maintained residenses in both the city and suburbs in Ca to house employees. Nothing scientific about it, there were considerably more people just plain old hammered at any hour of the day or night and any day of the week. It's much easier to carry a small bottle of liquor than a big jug or wine. Any time of the day or night, all I need to do was call a cab, they'd stop by the closest liquor store and bring me what ever I wanted, I didn't even need to poke my nose out the door. It's human nature, if it's easy, many will take advantage. I'm normally for less gov. but in this case, we do need to protect people from themselves. We're at the beginning of summer, we'll soon see how it goes. My biggest concern is for the many people that have lost and will be loosing their jobs over this. I don't need to hear about new jobs in the private sector, distributors and retailers will not be adding new staff, they already have staff taking care beer and wine.

[Bodofish]

PS: Nate, it's a lot easier to get that under age supplier to go to the corner store than to go tout of their way to a liquor store. Now they won't be limited to the first half of the weekend. Personally I wouldn't like to have them anywhere near daughter. You are right on one thing, there are a lot of weak parents about and I can only guess how they go that way.

[Big D]

Drunks, kids and even teetotalers, I've never seen any that couldn't get a bottle if they were motivated in that direction. I don't think things will change much as far as driving under the influence goes. If folks drive DUI, I think they will continue to do so no matter where the alcohol comes from. At least until the costs outweighs the benefits.