I believe so, as long as it’s at a liquor store
Wow, Utah just liberalized their liquor laws. But they already allowed beer sales in grocery stores and gas & go stores.
True, it was limited to 3.2 beer. The liberalization was you can now buy the regular 4.0 beer in grocery and gas & go stores.
CO was like that for a long time, but I think it changed. You could buy beer in the grocery store, but it was limited to 3.2. Just weird to make a different product that nobody really wants specifically for the grocery store.
Yeah, CO started allowing full strength beer to be sold at grocery and convenience stores around 2017-ish.
Yeah, Utah made the change when the major brewers said that enough states had changed so that it was making less and less economic sense for them to brew 3.2 beer and grocery stores in Utah were at risk of losing one of their biggest selling items.
What is “regular 4.0 beer”?
My understanding was that 3.2 beer meant 3.2% alcohol. Does 4.0 beer mean 4.0% alcohol? Most of what I imagine people consider to be “regular beer” has more than that. 4.2% would allow a lot of light beer though.
Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, and Miller Lite are all 4.2% and Coors Light is 4.15%.
Would those be allowed in Utah grocery stores under the new law?
We can buy alcohol in some grocery stores, but only in areas that are poorly served by the govt alcohol stores. And locations are dictated by the govt.
Everywhere else, it’s govt liquor stores and beer stores controlled by an oligopoly of the three large breweries.
I was in a beer store in the us where it was like a Walmart of beer. aisle after aisle of independent breweries. I’d love to run a store like that here, but nope, not allowed.
It is 4% alcohol by weight, and that translates to 5% by volume. There can be a pretty good selection of standard beers. For the high octane craft beers you still have to go to the state run liquor stores.
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Interesting. Yeah, 5% by volume includes a lot of “regular beers”.
Make that for her for lunch one day…
We have several grocery stores near me in NJ that sell beer in-store.
In the rest of the US, or at least most of it, you can get beer nearly anywhere. But in NJ, it seems, liquor is more readily available. You don’t have separate stores for just liquor and have to go someplace else to get your beer.
WI grocery and gas stations sell all three - beer, wine and booze too.
TN is both wine and beer, no liquor
But more restaurants would drive down profitability across the board. Plus, it’s revenue for the state.
You hoser!
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Interesting, I’d never seen it before. From reading the specifics on Wikipedia I’d guess if they’re not chains they might be able to do it?
I will admit there are some grocery stores I’ve been to with a mini liquor store inside the store, although it’s a distinct store (with separate payment).
If we’re looking to maximize profitability then we’d just have one restaurant with a monopoly. It’s not in my interest to maximize restaurant profitability.
And setting up arbitrary walls to generate revenue for the state doesn’t sound like it’s in my interest either.
