Saturday, December 27, 2008

Help Kentucky join the modern era

Speaking of wine and law, I saw this article in the Enquirer today. Some grocery stores in Kentucky are starting a petition drive to allow wine sales in supermarkets.

Non-Bluegrass readers probably read the above sentence and went, "Huh?" Yes, what you read is correct. It is currently illegal in the state of Kentucky for a grocery store to sell wine. You'll usually see a liquor store, often owned by the grocery, next door -- but the law requires a separate storefront and separate transactions.

Kentucky's a pretty bass-ackwards state when it comes to alcohol sales. Of Kentucky's 120 counties, only 30 are truly "wet," meaning that alcohol sales are permitted. 52 are truly dry, meaning no alcohol sales at all. The rest have some weird combination of regulations usually around restaurants and golf courses. (I remember my uncle Alan's reaction when he learned about dry counties at my sister's wedding a couple of years ago. Alan is from NYC. I think the shock still hasn't worn off...)

Needless to say, this setup is patently ridiculous. According to the article, "Liquor store operators and legislators, opposed to expanding the sale of alcohol, are against the bill." The former probably fear a drop in their business, but I would guess the impact would be negligible. The latter are likely the same legislators who demand creationism side by side with evolution and who require the state Homeland Security office to credit God with keeping the state safe.

Anyway, there's an online petition to support changing the law so that you can do your food and wine shopping together. There's also a Facebook group if you're into that sort of thing. Take a couple of seconds and sign the petition if you can.


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