To the People of Washington State:
In this time of deep political and spiritual divides, when we face issues of such pressing urgency that even the most moderate thinkers feel their blood boil as they pluck splinters from butts while rising from the fence upon which they typically sit to turn and yell at both sides of the political spectrum. The world presses in on us from all sides and our economy struggles and our weather has been a-typical. You have managed to unite in one thing: privatizing liquor sales.
I am so disappointed in you.
I have no moral objections to booze. Rather I am a champion of spirits and regularly have a bottle of whiskey in the cupboard and often tequila and vodka and take a great deal of pleasure and pride in mixing simple drinks with complex flavors and enjoying them in a mature and responsible fashion. But I choose and pursue my spirits in an intentional manner.
This past weekend liquor became available to purchase in stores over 10,000 square feet, or something like that. While I was at the store throngs of people flocked to the newly stocked liquor isles and displays and loaded their baskets with half gallon jugs of piss poor vodka and gin and fifths of bad whiskey and bottles of bad tequila all in the course of their regular shopping, picking out broccoli then their bad booze.
The fact that people have always bought bad alcohol is not lost on me. It was readily available in state run liquor stores as well and it was purchased just as greedily but intentionally so. But Costco has convinced us that they deserve to sell liquor as well and the general population has toed the Costco line...literally.
I will miss the small, state controlled liquor stores and diverse crew who manned them and I resent Costco and company for their manipulative efforts to gain control of one more aspect of consumer goods. I am frustrated that buying whiskey, gin, vodka, tequila, or whatever poison you prefer will be as casual as buying a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, and a gallon of milk. I hate watching people (in my case mostly college students) lugging around cheap, clear, swill piss in plastic half gallon jugs and off brand Cheetos.
I hope you are happy Washington state. I hope you like your higher prices both in the stores and at your favorite watering whole. There is no way out of this one.
uh wow. this rant makes absolutely no sense and doesn't even remotely serve to further the discussion on whether governments should be in the business of selling consumables. People buy cheap liquor regardless of where it's being sold. Fact. The fact that you now have to look at it in context of people buying other cheap consumables (think middle isles of every grocery store in america), really is irrelavent to the discussion of whether or government should be in this business or not. the fundamental argument is that selling goods such as this is plain and simply not supposed to be our governments role. How do you speak to that? i get it that you now have to see dumb people more often but that really is irrelavent to the discussion don't you think? also, the fact that liquor prices may be up from what they were while the state controlled (monopolized) liquor sales is something worthy of a discussion. baby steps. privatization first. put the control where it needs to be and let market forces dictate who wins (think of all the businesses making and selling the spirits you so desire). from there, let's work on the taxation issue (which is still a large issue that needs to be addressed).
ReplyDeleteOk, sure, I see you point but I feel that maybe it is the governments role to have some control over consumer products; however, my intent was not to further the discussion, really, on government control, rather my intent was to express my feelings/opinion on the issue at hand which is, to be redundant, that I don't like it and preferred the liquor stores to the grocery stores. I also feel that the makers of "the spirits you so desire" will be hurt, dramatically by this choice. It does not only affect small "craft" distilleries who will struggle to compete with mega brands but also their winery and brewery counter parts. I don't feel that these smaller operations have the production power to compete and succeed in a market that will, by and large, be dominated by Costco. But, time will tell.
DeleteLet's not forget the hundreds of people that lost jobs because of this....in a state that needs to create MORE jobs as it is.
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