Voters have rejected Initiatives 1100 and 1105, preserving Washington’s State Store system for now, but if not for a well-funded No campaign, and the confusion created by dueling privatization initiatives, one or the other might have passed. So this is no time for the state to sit back and relax in the expectation that its profitable liquor monopoly is safe for the foreseeable future.
There are those who are simply opposed to a state-owned liquor monopoly on ideological grounds, and there is no convincing them. Then there are those handful of business interests who seek to profit from privatization at the expense of state coffers. But there are a lot of folks who wouldn’t support privatization as strongly if the State Stores simply addressed the convenience issue.
So here are just a few ideas off the top of my head.
Step One: more stores with extended and Sunday hours. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from people complaining that they couldn’t buy the booze they wanted on a Sunday, or on a Friday or Saturday night.
Step Two: provide delivery service to bars and restaurants. This may sound a little petty, but there are a ton of restaurant owners who really resent having to pick up their booze themselves, when nearly all their other supplies are delivered. They don’t really expect a privatized system to sell them booze much cheaper, they just expect much better service. Give them that, and they won’t be so eager to put their time and money into the next initiative.
Step Three: modernize! You desperately need a brand new consumer oriented website and accompanying phone app that allows customers to remotely check out inventory at neighborhood stores, purchase their order, and then just drop by and pick it up (check out the Redbox website and app for an idea of what I’m talking about.) Customers could even use these tools to make special orders of items not normally stocked.
And that was just after five minutes of brainstorming. I’m sure if you talk to your employees, they probably have a bunch of ideas too about how to make the State Store experience more efficient and more appealing.
The point is, the worst thing a monopoly can do is behave like one; that’s what pisses everybody off. Innovate or die.
UPDATE:
I posted a link over on Slog, and folks are chiming in with their own suggested improvements. Lots of good ideas. Hey Olympia… are you listening?
Goldy wants to add more government employees.
How unlike him.
COme on, the State has no business being in this or any other business the private sector can handle. It’s nothing more than a Union money & power grab.
Why not State owned Gas Stations.
State owned Pharmacies.
Where do you draw the line?
Let the stinking camel get his nose under the tent…and pretty soon YLB is sleepin’ with him!
Cynical @1,
Like I said: no convincing the ideologues.
And like I will say…
Back at ya!
Better is always better. So thumbs up to your suggestions.
Someone somewhere mentioned a transition plan that other states used.
Something about companies apply for licenses (charters?) to individual stores. The idea is to see how that incremental privatization goes.
We currently have third party licensing retail ops. I think they suck. But I don’t know the comparative cost to benefits.
While I’m deeply ambivalent about private vs public retail stores, I’m almost utterly opposed to the naked money grab that always seems to happen with corporatist, err, Republican privatization schemes.
Right to corporate profit off the public teat isn’t in the Bill of Rights.
I think the state run stores should expand and offer other products & services, like pot & prostitutes. Budget problem solved.
Restaurants an bars have to register with one liquor store and then buy all their booze though that store, which is just stupid. It doesn’t work anyway, if you’re out of a 5th of something and “your store” doesn’t have it you just grab cash from the till and buy it at another store.
Step three’s is part way there, inventory is searchable. You’re right, You should be able put in an order into a central database, pay for it, and get an email telling you when your order is ready. If the Pierce County Library system can do this (replace paying for an order with paying fines online) why can’t the WSLB.
i can find NO reason to end the state stores…..none.
can’t make time to buy your drink before 7 then maybe you shouldn’t be drinking…..you have already shown an inability to process thought sober….why should i now trust you to drunk???
Jesus! Mr. Cynical has a great idea with the gas stations — let the state take them over. EVERY gas station is a god damned neighborhood eyesore, with shitty service and horrible merchandise. I would LOVE it if the state took them over.
Added bonus: add a bucket or two more of taxes on the gas to get people to stop using it!
I’m sure Costco is in this for the long haul. They have the resources to keep bringing this up until voters and the opposition wear out, don’t they?
@1 Keep beating that straw man, dude. It’s far better than dealing with the issue at hand.
@7
It’s all about personal responsibility. The stores are around and they’re open often enough. If you can’t figure out that you need to get to the store by closing time that’s you’re own tough luck.
@Goldy, what’s up with this socialistic coddling of drinkers?
Who should we bribe to get a license when it becomes legal?
What is the appropriate size of the bribe?
re 9: What kind of dog is that in your picture. Looks like an Akbash puppy.
The stores would make an ideal means for controlled to legalized pot — medicinal purposes and otherwise.
I still feel the larger retailers like Costco should be able to skip the middleman and buy direct if they want…besides the convenience factor, but staggering cost added by the middleman distributor is horrid.
@15
For beer and wine, yep!
I just want to live in a society with socialist health care and capitalist liquor stores. That’s my ideology, and I’m sticking to it.
What the state needs to do is develop a plan for getting out of the liquor business BUT ON THEIR OWN TERMS rather than having it shoved down their throats by initiative that is written by a very interested outside party (ie: Costco). The state should not be in the business of selling a retail product. If they state gets out on their own terms they can make it financially viable.
BTW: Where I live the liquor store in town is privately run. It is a hardware store too.
@13: I thought it was a yellow Labrador retriever, based on its look of thoughtful sagacity.
In any case, he earned my write-in vote against Dan Satterberg.
It’s not JUST a retail product. Alcohol is THE most harmful drug (followed by crack and heroin). Pot is WAY down the list. The stores provide a means for controlled distribution when (not if) pot is legalized.
More here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/201.....gs_alcohol
The LCB will be converting three state stores to privately run stores over the next few months. That’s the trend and the model I think you should be looking at. It’s cheaper. The contract manager has the freedom to be open whenever she wants and choose from whatever non LCB product she wants. From there it is pretty simple to open new contract stores. And from there it is pretty simple to go from contract to license. It’s cheap, humane and organic.
Next year, it is likely the LCB will allow contract stores to opt out of the state wine list and go to distributors if they want. That’s huge.
If one of the really big state run stores in Seattle went private… like if I got MY hands on it… it would be as big as a Safeway, you know?
Oregon is a control state and it operates 0 (ZERO) stores.
Great idea! With all the new revenue the government has I’m sure there will be plenty left to hire more workers to tackle these solutions. Wait, what’s that? Oh, we /cut/ taxes and are starving the state?
While the “state of the art” automated Distribution Center is a horribly designed building, if they could ship less volume, the building might work as it is designed to work. How you ask can they do that? The answer is simple: get rid of most of the wine they stock at the Distribution Center. What the hell are they doing in wine distribution when there are a bunch of perfectly fine wine distributors more than happy to ship their stock directly to stores, including state run stores, in addition to Safeway and Costco.
If you want to keep a variety of wines, concentrate on WA state wineries. There is no reason we need to be stocking Gallo Night Train Express or white port.
This would drive the volume down, so this rube-goldberg monstrosity might function halfway decent.
While they will lose some revenue, they will be able to save on labor and maintenance. Right now this building is pretty maxed out, pedal to the metal, at least five days per week 24/7, and many times on Saturday.
They stock too much damn wine! Especially considering they are competing directly with the private sector in this stuff.
@6 Michael: Look, what do you think you were going to do under privatization? You’d get your Jack Daniels from the licensed Jack Daniels distributor. Period. This bullshit about going to the distiller is crap. Jack Daniels won’t sell anything to anybody but Brown-Forman and Brown-Forman will sell it only to regional distributors like Spirits Northwest (or MAYBE Costco Safeway, Kroger and Wal-Mart, period) and they’ll sell it maybe to another distributor and that would be the ONLY place you could get it, maybe for less than the guy across the street, but maybe more, depends on the deal (kick-back) you’d cut. Oh, yeah, and 1 case minimum or 10 if you want it at what Tom Douglas gets it for. But right now? You pay exactly the same, one bottle or 10.
If your store is closed or if your store runs out, you can always go to another store and just show your wallet copy of your Class H license. And as always, one bottle minimum. Retail for the price of wholesale.
Jesus, stop whining. You got it good.
5. sarge spews:
heh-heh…sadly sarge, your leftist friends in Olympia are scurrying around working on this after reading your post.
There are no shortage of whores in Olympia!
Or you could adopt California’s liquor laws. I bought a monster sized bottle (well over a litre) of Absolut Citron at a Costco in San Diego a few weeks ago for $14.97. A smaller bottle at a WA state liquor store would cost closer to $30. Why shouldn’t deals like this be available to WA residents?
10. stealingzen spews:
Strawman?? WTF.
All I’m saying is I believe the State has no business monopolizing anything the private sector can handle. I saw the numbers on this liquor store.
$50 current
$30 @ Costco
I don’t drink so no biggy to me. It’s the principal. Where do you draw the line stealingzen? Answer me that.
The prices in Washington are high because the taxes are the highest in the nation. If Washington’s liquor taxes were as low as California, the prices in Washington would be lower than theirs. Why? Because California is a three tier state — by law — but it doesn’t matter, all the states are three tier states either by law or practice. All you would have done is added a middle man.
If you want to get out of the liquor business, fine, but you’ll have to reform taxes — like a grownup — first.
@26
I’m not in favor of selling off the stores. I was posting about ways for the state to improve service.
Zotz,
Should the State be in the retail business of selling cars because they are dangerous?
@28
Looks like prices for Absolut run between $11.72 & $33.49.
http://liq.wa.gov/pricebook/Pr.....Search.asp
@29
The prices I saw Costco had listed on their store displays weren’t accurate. It’s easy enough to check.
http://liq.wa.gov/pricebook/PriceSelectBrand.asp
We like liquor prices high as it reduces consumption and the problems that come along with higher levels of consumption.
@32
They tried to raise taxes on them and that didn’t workout so well, so I’d have to say no. On the other hand people seem to like the fact that the hard stuff come from a state store. 1100 and 1105 are failing.
re 19: So, you can buy a Sawzall and a twelve pack to go with it!
Sweet….
Or, get a free dozen nightcrawlers with any single malt!
I was only partially kidding there. Who says the contract stores can’t offer free premiums as upsell devices? Not in the future, now.
@19
The liquor store in Ritzville used to also be a quilting store.
Eventually marijuana will be legal, and the state’s system of liquor sales will be the perfect system for control, distribution and sales of marijuana. It’s simply a matter of time.
Anyway…
Say g’night Gracie, the people have spoken!
Find a Liquor store. Stores open on Sunday.
Several stores around the Seattle area are open till 8pm M-Sat, some are open till 9pm (mostly Fri & Sat). The store at 2960 4th Ave S is open till 10pm on Fri & Sat
@34, Michael: Thanks for the assist!
I’d add that as soon as I see the wingnut side with a plan to replace revenue, we can talk about the stores being in state hands. I’m not holding my breath. Leaving aside that the legislature has 2/3rds of it’s hands tied behind it’s back, of course.
Cars are not drugs. I wish drugs were more like cars: regulated for maximum harm reduction, with incentives for moderate behavior. The state stores are an awfully good way to help accomplish that.
The government has no business being in the liquor sales business. They have a business regulating it, but not selling it.
What is the rationale for having the state run a liquor sales business? Why not other consumables? How about state gas stations?
The state may not have a phone app, but I created one for it. I have ideas around improvements for v2, but I’d love to hear suggestions. You can download the iphone version by searching for Washington State Liquor Locator in the app store, or by following this link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app.....78574?mt=8
They will have to privatize them anyway, since their budget is so wacked out and the Citizens have told them loud and clear they cannot raise taxes.
your suggestions suck goldy! i want to see free booze for children and alcoholics, a service i can only see possible through privatizing the distribution and sale of alcohol.