Another stab at liquor law reform

[AquaMan]

Oh I get it. We love the law so much that we skirt it. That makes since.

I think the picture is clear to all of us.

I recently spoke to a fellow who had a chance to buy a liquor store well located in one of the growing suburbs few years back. He had owned an area restaurant and had closed it up. He relates to me that the only way to compete at the retail level in liqour stores is location. Once the key location is sewed up the economics won't allow much competition. Anyway, just as he makes an offer the store gets snapped up by someone who offered more than twice the asking price. I won't divulge the location or the parties, but it seems one of the wholesalers was concerned that this location, one of his largest customers, might end up using the other wholesaler if a stranger bought the place. So, he used his daughter-in-law to buy the place at the inflated price to secure the future stream of product.

Now, vertical integration is not unusual in the open marketplace, but this is not an open marketplace. The players at the wholesale level are appointed lords of the state and as such should not be allowed to own retail stores using this scam.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I think the picture is clear to all of us.

I recently spoke to a fellow who had a chance to buy a liquor store well located in one of the growing suburbs few years back. He had owned an area restaurant and had closed it up. He relates to me that the only way to compete at the retail level in liqour stores is location. Once the key location is sewed up the economics won't allow much competition. Anyway, just as he makes an offer the store gets snapped up by someone who offered more than twice the asking price. I won't divulge the location or the parties, but it seems one of the wholesalers was concerned that this location, one of his largest customers, might end up using the other wholesaler if a stranger bought the place. So, he used his daughter-in-law to buy the place at the inflated price to secure the future stream of product.

Now, vertical integration is not unusual in the open marketplace, but this is not an open marketplace. The players at the wholesale level are appointed lords of the state and as such should not be allowed to own retail stores using this scam.

Things like that happened with horse racing, too, after the legislature sold out to the Mafia.

As I have harped on interminably, look at who you are voting for!  And stop it!  Vote for someone else!

[Conan71]

Someone take a look at his campaign contributors, I smell a rat.  Either this guy is the worst kind of fundie, or he's been bought and paid for:

Sen. Jonathan Nichols, R-Norman, offered the motion for the task force to disband. The motion passed on a unanimous voice vote.

If the issue comes up in the Legislature next year, Nichols said he'll be there to fight against it.

"That issue is talking about nothing less than putting 'Everclear in a Can' in the grocery stores, where they've got - according to the testimony of the other side - employees as young as 18 and 16 and even 15 years of age behind the cash registers," Nichols said after the hearing. "I will not support increasing access to alcohol for our youth by putting it in grocery stores. I just will not support that."

During Thursday's hearing, Nichols reacted strongly to statistics presented by Keith Burt, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission, that in the state of Washington liquor store clerks prevent 97 percent of sales to minors, but 1 in 4 attempts by minors to buy alcohol in convenience stores is successful.

Nichols asked Deputy Mental Health Commissioner Steve Buck if he thought increasing the availability of wine and strong beer would lead to more alcohol-involved accidents involving young drivers.

"I have significant concerns that it will," Buck said.

One study has shown that for every 1 percent increase in the retail density of alcohol, consumption will increase by 2.5 percent and violent crime will increase 0.5 percent, Buck said.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20111021_16_A11_CUTLIN263415

Can I get a quadruple face palm here?

[dbacks fan]

More crime and drunkeness? Seriously? Is that the best they could come up with? I say give it 10 or 20 years and it might happen like finally getting the lottery amidst all the dire problems and fears associated with it. I know thats not the best comparison but these people have their heads in concrete not sand.

[Hoss]

Someone take a look at his campaign contributors, I smell a rat.  Either this guy is the worst kind of fundie, or he's been bought and paid for:

Can I get a quadruple face palm here?

Like we seriously thought this was going to happen?  Now really the only way it will is via petition...sad.

[patric]

CDC report:
"ATLANTA – Health officials say drunken driving has fallen 30 percent in five years, and last year was at its lowest mark in nearly two decades."

It's not a crisis, it's an industry.

[DolfanBob]

I'm still trying see how we can integrate the changing of the law to get the kids more School buses, basketballs, computers etc, etc, etc. Hmmm........

[Conan71]

I'm still trying see how we can integrate the changing of the law to get the kids more School buses, basketballs, computers etc, etc, etc. Hmmm........

Hey there you go:

"Liquor law reform.  Do it for the children."

And have a bunch of frowning children telling how if liquor laws aren't reformed, they can't ride on shiny new school buses and they won't have paper to write on.  Hey, it's worked for other vices.  Brilliant Dolfan!

[BKDotCom]

I find it ironic that the "it promotes drunkenness and underage drinking - we'll have nothing to do with it" announcement came during Octoberfest.   How can we have a big beer fest while at the same time saying beer is bad m-kay.

[Conan71]

I find it ironic that the "it promotes drunkenness and underage drinking - we'll have nothing to do with it" announcement came during Octoberfest.   How can we have a big beer fest while at the same time saying beer is bad m-kay.

That DOES suffer from a little irony, doesn't it?

[dbacks fan]

I find it ironic that the "it promotes drunkenness and underage drinking - we'll have nothing to do with it" announcement came during Octoberfest.   How can we have a big beer fest while at the same time saying beer is bad m-kay.

This comes from the hypocritical members of the board that enjoy their cocktail parties in their wellstocked liquor cabinets in their homes, and then go to country club for the same, go to church and pose puritanically and then tell everyone else how they should live. The same people who screamed that the passing of liquor by the drink and cutting back the hours of liquor stores was going to increase the number of drunk drivers and deaths related to it. They need to quit polishing the buckle and get out of the positions they are in or have someone jack hammer their heads out of the concrete they are in.

[TheTed]

Good thing I just spent ~$200 in Missouri on a winter beer supply. We're flush with cash. The state of Oklahoma has no use for all that tax money going to neighboring states.

That Founders Breakfast Stout is mighty smooth and tasty.

And I ask again, why do grocery store sales have to be the goal?

I don't really care if I can buy actual beer at the grocery store. How about just relaxing laws on the liquor stores? Cold sales. Sales until midnight 7 days a week, etc. Then again I'm not your average Oklahoma beer drinker. I just want to be able to buy good quality beer.

[DTowner]

Like we seriously thought this was going to happen?  Now really the only way it will is via petition...sad.

Given the composition of this task force, the outcome was predetermined.  That said, relying on statements that reform will result in "Everclear in a can" and "promoting drunkeness and underage drinking" show how desparate the beneficiaries of the current system are to maintain the status quo and protect their government sanctioned profits. 

The petition route will be cumbersome and it will be difficult to make much headway given the likely need to amend the Oklahoma constitution, the intertwined complexity of the liquor system and the rules for petition initiatives.  In the meantime, more and more Oklahomans will resort to obtaining wine and beer in a selection and at prices the Oklahoma liquor cartel do not provide.  So lives on the legacy of the so-called Bootlegger and Baptist coalition.

[godboko71]

Looks like I will have to keep buying from Texas.

[Red Arrow]

Good thing I just spent ~$200 in Missouri on a winter beer supply. We're flush with cash. The state of Oklahoma has no use for all that tax money going to neighboring states.

You can last all winter on ~$200 worth of beer?