By local business, I assume you mean the Montgomery county government?? Yea, no problem running the liquor business that governmnet has NO PLACE being in out of business… quite happy to actually. Government should regulate business, not be engaged in it. And I don’t care about grocery stores selling it, I just want the mom and pops and anyone else with a liquor license to have the right to import whatever customers want into the county, not just what MoCo imports, which is far less selection than if a real liquor distributor were allowed to do it. If MoCo’s stores were out of the picture and we used real distributors, MoCos stores would be replaced with discount liquor stores like Total Wine (there’s a few in VA), Bottle King (that one might just be a jersey thing, not sure), etc… providing approximately the same competition for the mom & pops as the MoCo stores do, but providing far better customer service and selection. Mom & Pops have their nitch as the place where you can quickly run out and get a chilled 6 pack or bottle of wine. Discount chains have little to no interest in providing that service – keeping stuff cold costs too much for their discount business model. It would be precisely the same dynamic that the mom&pops have with the MoCo stores, they just wouldn’t go through the county for distribution.

Mom and Pop stores survive in those jurisdictions by offering goods and services that supermarkets don’t. If that can be done elsewhere, there’s no reason it can’t be done in MoCo.

I can’t speak for others, but “morality” is not a factor in my general disdain for chain restaurants. Quality of food is what I care about, and if a chain is good, like Lebanese Taverna, I’m happy to eat there.

It’s really about diversity of offerings. Right now, MoCo unduly restricts the offerings available to its (taxpaying) citizens.

And the snide remarks about “Tony Soprano’s Liquors in Upstate New York” (during testimony) was oddly appropriate – even though it was used in reference to what would happen if the bill passed. I equate people like Mr. Bereano to organized crime during the earlier part of the 20th century that wanted to maintain prohibition because they made so much money off illegal sales. In this case, their regressive laws make filling their pockets actually legal.

This is insane.

Editor’s note: The reference to “Tony Soprano’s Liquors in upstate New York” came out of The Washington Post article. — JD (Feb 20, 2008)

He told me that unfortunately WH would probably be denied (as they eventually were) due to pressure from both the Mom & Pop stores, and, believe it or not, from the few remaining temperance activists. I still remember a letter in the S.S. Gazette warning that if WH was allowed to sell beer and wine, there would be winos in its parking lot.

Yep, we all fear those Whole Paycheck winos who might get blitzed next to their SUV and toss their empty double-glazed organic tempeh & pineapple takout containers at us.

While I was in Annapolis yesterday, I learned one big thing: The liquor lobbyists wield a lot of influence.

For example, when a PG County delegate proposed the sale of hootch at local supermarkets, a lobbyist for liquor retailers really threw his foot down. Despite Trader Joe’s and World Market’s desire to move into Laurel, liquor sales within those markets would run mom-and-pop beer runs out of business, the lobbyist argued.

The lack of beer at Giant, Whole Foods, Safeway and Sniders shows how influential those lobbyists can be.