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Blog Entry 19 of 24 My Life: Beer and Blogs
I'm a new media guy who happens to live in the Napa Valley of beer. This blog will chronicle my adventures through beers, blogs and everything else. Cheers!

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~justinian

Trader Joe's: Why we need to kill the Blue Laws
Contributed by: Justinian Hatfield   on 1/22/2008

Since I work for a California company, I spend a fair amount of time in The Golden State and every time I'm there, I come back with a suitcase full of cheap wine and booze from Trader Joe's. This last trip I managed to fit three bottles of wine, a bottle of scotch, some candy, some hot chocolate and a jar of honey into a carry-on sized suitcase along with all of my clothes. Amazingly, everything arrived intact!

If you've never been to a Trader Joe's, chances are you're not familiar with Two Buck Chuck, formally known as Charles Shaw. As it's nickname implies this wine costs $2/bottle.

Now, it's not the best wine in the world (although it has won a number of awards), but you can't beat it for $2. And it makes a perfectly good house wine in my opinion.

Unfortunately, because of our antiquated liquor laws, we can't buy Two Buck Chuck in Colorado. Ask anyone who has ever lived in California or any other state where there is a Trader Joe's and they're likely to tell you this store is one of the things they miss most. The closest Trader Joe's to Denver is in Santa Fe, NM and Two Buck Chuck costs $3 there - go figure.

Not only can we not buy our booze in the grocery store (which rumor has it is the reason TJs won't come to Denver), but we can't even buy it on Sundays.

There have been some attempts to change the law to allow liquor stores to be open on Sundays, but the liquor stores themselves lobbied against them, saying that they would never get a day off. No one's forcing them to be open on Sunday. I think the money they'd bring in from game-day beer sales could easily pay for someone to work that day.

Since the liquor store owners are lazy and don't want to be open on Sundays, I propose another solution. Let's allow grocery stores to sell wine and beer. Sure, some liquor stores will go out of business, but hey, they could have chosen to stay open on Sundays. Then we might even see a Trader Joe's in Denver.

I've heard the argument that if we allow grocery stores to sell beer, then all of the micro and craft breweries will suffer a loss in sales because the chain stores will only buy from the big guys.

I don't buy it. But, if grocery stores only sold cheap crappy beer, then I see a terrific market for local liquor stores to sell the harder to find stuff. I imagine the same could happen with wine.

I'd be ok with prohibiting the grocery stores from selling hard alcohol. Although, then I'd still have to to go California to get my Trader Joe's Scotch, but that's a sacrifice I can live with.


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Showing 1-10 of 14 comments
Submitted By: Linda Gerlinger
posted on 2/28/2008 @ 12:43:40 PM
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Didn't they pass the law where we can buy wine and beer in the grocery stores from now on,and that liquor stores will be open on Sunday's? I went to TX last year, and they sell liquor in the grocery stores. It's convenient when there are no liquor stores close by. I like for it to pass in Colorado
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Submitted By: Brian Crandall
posted on 2/12/2008 @ 10:51:25 AM
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I moved to and lived in Phoenix from '03 to 'o5. All the grocery stores sell hard liquor and beer. It was a nightmare, bud light and miller lite as far as the eye could see, nary a beer with flavor anywhere in site. There were no Liquor stores to be found because the grocery stores put them out of business. And the grocery stores could care less about hving a good selection of beer.
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Submitted By: Brian Crandall
posted on 2/12/2008 @ 10:49:35 AM
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Liquor store owners arent lazy, it's the antiquated law that prevents them from being open.
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Submitted By: Justinian Hatfield
posted on 1/24/2008 @ 8:12:03 AM
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Hey Karin, I just saw that story as well! I'm not sure which I'd rather see, Sunday sales or allowing Grocery Stores to sell beer and wine. I think I'm leaning toward the later, but I bet the liquor store lobby will defeat it. In any case I'll be watching those bills and calling my reps!
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Submitted By: Karin Malchow
posted on 1/23/2008 @ 7:05:13 PM
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1/23, 6:39 pm, Rockymountainnews.com: "Sunday Liquor Sales Likely." Haven't read the article yet, but I say liquor store owners reconsidered after this blog.
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Submitted By: Karin Malchow
posted on 1/23/2008 @ 3:08:23 PM
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My friend in Santa Barbara mentioned Two Buck Chuck recently and I had no clue. Of course, we went to Trader Joe's in the '80s.
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Submitted By: Justinian Hatfield
posted on 1/23/2008 @ 7:56:15 AM
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Nikki, your comment gave me a good idea. We can ask the environmental groups to get on board, saying that we'll drive less if we can buy beer and wine in the grocery stores. Brilliant!
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Submitted By: Justinian Hatfield
posted on 1/23/2008 @ 7:54:46 AM
(Not Rated)
Hey Bill, Good to know the small guys are doing fine in North Carolina. I had no idea you could buy beer on Sunday on the Air Force base. hmm...
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Submitted By: Nikki Britain
posted on 1/23/2008 @ 5:54:06 AM
Rated Blog Entry
Haven't been back to NoCal in years but I do miss TJ's... I'm all for the grocery stores being allowed off-sale licenses-- one less stop for me with kiddos makes for a happy Mama! (Of course, the glass of wine at the end of the night makes me happy too!)
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Submitted By: Bill Prather
posted on 1/23/2008 @ 1:32:29 AM
Rated Blog Entry
Have to tell you, I was just in North Carolina, where the grocery stores sell (real) beer and wine. The big Saturday ticket? Free tours of the microbrewery! Afterwards, it was all I could do to belly-up to the bar and buy a case of micro-brew to take home! Guess, the "little guys" can do just fine with grocery-store beer sales. As for Sunday sales, I'm on the fence. I can either buy it on Saturday, or go to Buckley Air Force Base and buy it on Sunday. What? You thought the only reason I joined the Army was for the cold-weather gear so I can ride my motorcycle all year? Well, yeah, there is that. Guess it wouldn't kill anyone to be open on Sundays. Till then, you could always enlist!
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Showing 1-10 of 14 comments
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Justinian Hatfield

Lakewood , CO

Justinian Hatfield has posted 24 blog entries and 51 comments since joining on 7/12/2006. Justinian Hatfield's average blog rating is 5.
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