What's with CT??

[PatMcD]

I was in Stamford overnight during my whirlwind tour of the Northeast (1400miles, Maine to Maryland & back). My buddy and I decided we might like an adult beverage and walked over to the convenience store to get a six-pack to take back to the hotel room. No beer on the shelf!!?? [shock] Have to go to a special store!!?? [shock] Even if there was, can't buy it after 8:00pm!!??? [shock] When the store clerk told us (as much as we could understand from his English), we must have looked like somebody just told us the Earth was square. [shock] I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone or on Candid camera (the one where they stopped everybody at the bridge and told them "sorry, Deleware is closed for the day"). [shock] We were glad to get back North of the border. Every time I go over the Kitter/Portsmouth bridge, I get nervous.

 

[Admin]

Pat it's called Communism.

 

[Len-2A Training]

CT has some stranger liquor laws (blue laws) than MA even! I lived their for 3 years back in the early 1970s.

 

[senorFrog]

I seem to remeber PA had the same type deal. You can only buy from state run stores. For hard alcohol Doesn't NH have that too?

 

[Len-2A Training]

NH restricts hard liquor sales to state-run stores only.

NH: Wine/beer can be sold damn near anywhere.

In MA, all liquor of any sort can only be sold in a liquor store. If a Sam's Club/BJ's/Costco's sells liquor it has to be a separate business and checkout only in that "department".

CT (circa early 1970s, no idea if anything has changed):

- High liquor prices, early closing of all liquor stores. No liquor of any sort sold anywhere but liquor stores.

- In bars or restaurants, ALL drink glasses have to be OFF THE TABLES by 9PM on a Sunday night. That one blew me away as we were enjoying an anniversary dinner in a nice restaurant in Mystic. Back then the fine for the waiter/waitress was $600/glass with an equal fine to the establishment!

- When we moved there it was illegal to sell ice cream on Sundays! [They sold it anyway in Mystic CT.]

- It was illegal to transport any opened liquor bottle in any vehicle. So when we moved to CT from MA and took our booze in boxes in the trunk we broke the law in CT. Likewise when we moved out of CT and took our booze with us in the trunk to MA. There were NO exceptions to this law (even when NOT within reach of any driver/passengers).

- Back then CT had NO income tax on earned income, only a tax on dividends/stock sales. IIRC I was told that the minimum tax was something like either $5.00 or $50.00, so that if all you owed was $0.01, you had to pay the state either the $5.00 or $50.00. It was an "honor system" and I was told by a bank investment officer that damn near everyone ignored the tax! [Today I know that they have an income tax, not sure about the "unearned income" issue.]

 

[Coyote33]

...In MA, all liquor of any sort can only be sold in a liquor store. If a Sam's Club/BJ's/Costco's sells liquor it has to be a separate business and checkout only in that "department".
...

Wrong if you mean beer. I can buy beer at the grocery store and go through a regular checkout line with deli stuff, laundry detergent, bread, milk, and hamburg. No problem.

It's been this way for at least the last 5 years.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

...In MA, all liquor of any sort can only be sold in a liquor store. If a Sam's Club/BJ's/Costco's sells liquor it has to be a separate business and checkout only in that "department".
...

Wrong if you mean beer. I can buy beer at the grocery store and go through a regular checkout line with deli stuff, laundry detergent, bread, milk, and hamburg. No problem.

While this is true of some grocery stores in MA, they are in the minority. If you visit NY you will find that the store not carrying beer is the rare exception, not the rule. It's the opposite in MA.

 

[mark056]

NY is really odd. You can't buy beer in a liquor store (I tried in NYC once) only in a grocery store or a bodega.

Mark

 

[C-pher]

Imagine what it was like where I went to college? I went to Ole Miss and we were a semi dry town. Beer could only be sold hot, and up to 9 pm and none on Sunday.

The only time you got cold beer was during winter from the beer barn.

 

[Garys]

In MA, all liquor of any sort can only be sold in a liquor store. If a Sam's Club/BJ's/Costco's sells liquor it has to be a separate business and checkout only in that "department".

No, no, nay, nay. At least not on Dec 31. I took my purchases, including the slip for the McCallan, and went to the register. Paid, went to customer service and picked up the bottle. However, I also had two bottles of wine that I grabbed from the shelves. I think the change might have been recent. In Florida, OTOH, there is a separate entrace for the liquor store part. You can't even get into the rest of the store without paying and going outside. Which is strange as they have drive through liquor stores.

Gary

 

[KMaurer]

I went to college in Indiana, close to Chicago. Indiana dodn't allow any alcohol sales on Sunday,so we'd usually head towards Chicago. It was really easy to tell when you reached the state line. The Illinois side of the street (Stateline Blvd) was pretty much filled with bars and liquor stores, while the Indiana side tended to have a lot l appliance stores (2% vs 6% sales tax).

Ken

 

[dreppucci007]

In CT, beer can be bought in liquor stores and grocery stores. Wine and liquor can only be bought in liquor stores. No alcohol is to be sold on Sundays. Also, it's only been in the last year that alcohol could be sold up to 9pm...before that it was 8pm. The problem is that most stores only stay open until 8pm still, with the exception of Fridays and Saturdays, they stay open until 9pm. I don't really miss that state, but it had it's benefits over MA...especially in the gun laws!

...and Pat, sorry to tell you this now if you didn't realize it at the time, but being in Stamford, you were a 5 minute drive to Westchester, NY where the stores are always open late...oh well.