Now I frequent two stores, the one near my home and the one that is open into the wee hours of the evening – 10:00 PM. Naturally, it being eight something I figured I would try the close one first. This, as it turned out, would be the wrong choice as I had missed closing time by over an hour.
So my friend and I hop back into the car and head downtown to the open late store…you know, the one that is half the size? Well we get there and find a higher than average amount of sinners all wishing to purchase their own supplies for various parties – all the while it never dawning on me that the Super Bowl was today.
So there we are, in something the size of a large apartment, all trying to get in and get out with barely any room to move. Now I know my friend and I decided that we were not going to buy an extra bottle simply because the lines were too intimidating and we just wanted to get in and out quicker. Now imagine, if you will, if every one in five people made the same decision that night – add on top of this the people who looked in the parking lot and decided not to go in in the first place. We are now literally talking about thousands of tax dollars to the state lost because one location had to absorb its own clientele plus the people who lived north of it.
Now you can give me all the arguments you want about how we should not be drinking much any way. But the majority of the people buying liquor yesterday are consuming it today and sticking around at their buddies house for a while – they are not leaving the bar once closing time comes around.
Instead of talking about Zion curtains and private club memberships, we should be having a frank and honest discussion about supply and demand. This, I feel is where the majority of legislators fall short – they simply don’t understand how difficult it actually is to gain access to a legal product that the state makes almost pure profit off of.
