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Thanks. It's funny how you always seem to be around when I'm posting at 1 or 2 in the morning...

I could go for a Grain Belt and some Somali food right about now. Or any beer and food for that matter.

Agreed.

Well, I do have a job which I'm about to go to, but I would like to talk about beer later...say around 5:30 or so this afternoon.

More to the point, can somebody please explain why we can't buy beer in grocery stores or cars on Sundays? Two dirty words in my opinion: lobbies and churches.

Allegedly, business wants to operate without regulatory encumbrances, but as far as I know, the MLBA *likes* the fact that they have restrictive operating hours enshrined by law. I think the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association likes their blue laws, too.

The feeling is that later hours and a seven day schedule would eat away at their net profit, because they'd simply run longer to make the same amount of money... that might work for cars, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's cursed the fact that it's after 8 or 10PM (depending on the night) more than once.

The big problem with this being passed is the amount of cities in Minnesota with Municipal Liquor stores. I'm pretty sure Anoka, Columbia Heights, Morris, St. Anthony Village, etc are not going to give up the cash cow of public funding that is liquor sales.

Even if they pass a state law it is still up to city governments to set their own liquor laws that can be more restrictive than state laws. So if you live or shop in those cities you will be out of luck.

Wow, that's some fuzzy math.

If Grain Belts costs $11.99 for a 12 pack then that's: 11.99/12 = $0.99 a bottle. So

100,000,000/277,978 is $438.64 a bottle.

Is that what they're charging in Northfield these days?

Post changed.

Does it say in the report anywhere when the law was enacted in the first place?

Let the cities set their own liquor laws. Sensible cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul can benefit if the state law changes.

My hometown has a municipal liquor store. Yes, there's nothing like walking in and seeing a 6-pack of Summit priced at nearly $8.00!

From the sound of it, the liquor laws in Minnesota are a bit archaic... it sounds as if the guys from Surly Brewing had to jump through a multitude of hoops just to get up and running and they're aren't even bottling beer yet.

If you recall, it took what seems like ages for Minnesota to actually allow brewpubs to sell growlers. I still think it's silly that they need to conform to the liquor store hours... of course I think liquor store hours (and 3.2 beer in gas stations and grocery stores) are silly. Of course I was spoiled, I went to college for a year in a city that bordered Fargo, North Dakota and their liquor stores are seemingly always open.

I agree on no Sunday sales, but isn't this also about letting grocery stores sell booze? That I don't think I'd like. Grocery stores are brand whores, and stock what the distributors pay them to stock, i.e. shit.

I like good beer and you don't get that unless you go to a place that also appreciates good beer. Generally speaking, that wouldn't include any grocery stores I've ever shopped in.

"We don't want liquor stores to be able to sell food because then people will stop going to grocery stores."
"Do you realise that in a few years you will be prevented from selling booze in your grocery store?"
"When would we ever want that?"

The Mob has nothing on the beer distribution system in Minnesota, and in fact, it is a system that has its roots in the mob's prohibition liquor business. When prohibition ended, the distribution system remained intact. It's the most corrupt, bribery-ridden system imaginable. And they keep it that way by greasing the legislature well. Before John Marty cleaned up the system at the capitol, it was even worse. Legislators' refrigerators were magically filled every night by the "beer fairies." The whole three-tiered system that guarantees obscene profits to everyone but the beermakers should be deismantled.