The camaro show Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 So forgive me if this is a dumb question but I’m pretty new to liquor in general and haven’t been able to wrap my head around this. I live in West Virginia which I believe is a controlled state for liquor but the state has no owned liquor stores. Locally we have 3 places, a Walgreens, a cvs and one Privately owned chain store called smoker friendlys/ liquor plus. Is it better to be in a controlled state or not? A controlled state keeps prices around MSRP? All the prices I see locally are reasonable but nothing crazy selection wise. Last night I paid $31.99 before tax for Elijah Craig small batch 94. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bret Bret Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 I'm in Ohio, controlled. It's great to be able to get spirits at msrp but as you stated, the selection leaves much to be desired. I'm pretty sure the state owns the liquor until it is sold and then the retailer gets their cut. They over promote local brands and have an antiquated system of searching for what you are looking for. I guess the best way to put it is, I make most of my best bourbon buys out of state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemonman Posted December 30, 2020 Share Posted December 30, 2020 If controlled means paying $31.99 for EC I'm not interested. Here in northeastern Illinois (not exactly the cheapest place in the country), I can pick it up for 26.99 anytime; even expensive places it's 29.99. A friend picked some up at Costco in SE Wisconsin for low 20's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The camaro show Posted December 31, 2020 Author Share Posted December 31, 2020 5 hours ago, lemonman said: If controlled means paying $31.99 for EC I'm not interested. Here in northeastern Illinois (not exactly the cheapest place in the country), I can pick it up for 26.99 anytime; even expensive places it's 29.99. A friend picked some up at Costco in SE Wisconsin for low 20's. Dang I didn’t realize it was that cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parksmart Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Was in a Safeway today, so of course checked out the booze section. Elijah Craig Small Batch was down to $20.99 if you purchased two bottles. I unfortunately missed out on the holiday packs, which include a bottle of Old Fashioned syrup along with the 750ML of ECSmB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berto Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 I live in one of most expensive markets in the country with a ton of stupid money floating around and shelf staples are about as inexpensive as you'll find them anywhere. I have a wealth of options when choosing where to buy. Target, CVS, Safeway, big chains liquor stores, small chain liquor stores, mom and pops, etc. A promise of lower prices is nice but not much good if you can't actually find the bottles. The only stuff that's difficult to find is the same stuff that's difficult to find everywhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Generally speaking there are two kinds of control states - the ones where the state both controls the distribution and owns all the stores, and the ones where they only control the distribution and grant licenses to individual stores. The first example seems to be the worst scenario in terms of availability. As berto said above, it's nice that prices may be kept low but if availability is limited and there's no recourse for you to ask a store to order in something you want then that is a less than optimal situation for a bourbon lover. In this scenario it's also unlikely you will be able to find and experience a great store pick. The "state" may choose to do a pick from time to time and if they do the bottles get parsed out in small amounts and not every store gets one. You also have no idea if the people picking the barrel are any good or if they even picked it at all. For all you know the distillery just sent them a random barrel. Getting any LE bottles is also about impossible. Stores don't decide individually what to do with them. It's usually a state wide lottery. In the second example, there seems to be more individual control of what a store owner wants to stock. They also can do their own store picks. They can get LE allocations like non control state stores and decide how to sell them. A great example of this is Lincoln Road Package Store in Mississippi. They have a very robust store pick program (and quite a following). The most extreme example of a non-control is where I live. We have the highest taxes on alcohol in the country so the out the door price is close to highest in the country. I have a relationship with my local so I get taken care of during LE season and I'm on the barrel picking team so I always have great store picks on hand. On the other hand, it's expensive. We also don't have state taxes here so it kind of balances out I suppose. The rules really vary from control state to control state so it's possible one of my examples above may be true for one state but then not be true for another. Take it as general commentary. If you want to nerd out, here's a link: https://www.nabca.org/control-state-directory-and-info 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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