Tagged: Washington State Liquor Control Board

Liquor in a hardware store? Mini’s at the checkout stand? Mega-stores around the corner?

Woman on the street: “My parents actually needed a gift for a friend of ours, and they were able to buy it at a convenience store – like a nice bottle of liquor. I think it’s convenient!”

Now that Washington State is out of the liquor sales business, bottles of booze are showing up in some unexpected places.

Backers of an initiative to privatize liquor sales in Washington are suing state regulators for clinging to too much power in the newly opened marketplace. The Washington State Liquor Control Board has the job of interpreting provisions of the ballot measure passed last fall. But Costco, the Washington Restaurant Association and the Northwest Grocery Association say the board is using a heavy hand.

Following objections from other cities, Seattle will have to wait a month to know if its efforts to extend bar hours beyond 2 a.m. can go forward.

Seattle officials have wanted to make last call later, arguing that law enforcement is burdened by a mass of drunks tumbling out of night clubs and bars.

You won’t hear the gavel sound at this auction. But you may want to pay attention anyway since the fate of your neighborhood liquor store may figure in. The Washington State Liquor Control Board has  opened an online auction as part of the next step toward liquor privatization.

A judge’s ruling on Friday has thrown the privatization of liquor sales in Washington into question and landed the state’s craft distillers in a state of limbo.

A Cowlitz County judge on Friday upheld most of an initiative that requires the state to get out of the liquor business, but called for a trial to determine whether a provision for public safety funding violated rules for initiatives to address only one subject.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington liquor stores are on their way to privatization. But don’t expect a clearance sale on the booze that’s left over when the stores close in May.

Representatives from the state Liquor Control Board gave an update Tuesday to the state lawmakers in Olympia on the privatization approved by voters.

BOISE – Washington State’s move to privatize liquor sales next year could have repercussions on Idaho’s revenues. That’s according to Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluation.

Analyst Jared Tatro of Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluation says high prices for liquor in Washington drive bargain seekers to Idaho.

But privatization may change that.

“If Washington prices are reduced to the point where residents stop coming over, what we’re going to see is, for example, if it’s a 10 percent drop in sales, that’s a reduction in $3.5 million in profit,” Tatro says.

Now that voters have kicked the state out of the liquor store business, some people are looking forward to changes in how they buy booze. Others, though, say the decision is not cause for celebration. 

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The mood in state liquor stores across Washington is subdued. More than nine-hundred state employees face lay-off with the passage of Costco-backed Initiative 1183 .

OLYMPIA, Wash. — State officials say two proposed bids that would privatize Washington's liquor distribution system are not financially beneficial.