Single-sale beer ban

[from Heather Schneider]

Single-sale ban of beer, ale now affects DC Ward 4

Most Ward 4 alcoholic beverage retailers were told last week to stop selling individual containers of beer, malt liquor or ale. A three-year-old District law, its implementation held up due to court action [Ed. note - by Decatur Liquors in Petworth], is “now in effect” but will not be enforced until Aug. 1.

Click here for full article in The Examiner.

Comments

[Chris]

Amusing. I wonder if the measure is intended to target a specific ... er ... constituency, or to force liquor stores to improve their selection? I suspect its to target a certain constituency ... after all, those who buy malt liquor are so much more unsightly when they get drunk then yuppy drunk people [he wrote sarcastically...]

I wonder if a ban on single sales applies to those extra-large single bottles of high-quality beer. I think Chimay sells such things, and I know of some good stuff from Quebec that I've seen available at a few liquor stores in DC. Now THAT would be a victim of unintended consequences of the law.

[Viipottaja]

DGM, lol, you have a good sense of humor! And good to hear you support the ban. Perhaps the men on their way home from work are more likely to buy that six pack than a single anyway, so maybe their legal habits are not terribly impacted?

Frankly, did not realise only yuppies drank wine. Even if that was the case, a few bottles more of wine would hardly force the liquor stores to stop selling the non-yuppie drinks. ;-)

[dgm]

Although I think this is a good thing, a man should be able to get one beer on his way home from work and not forced to buy 6. Who are we to decide how many beers a man should buy at a time. We live in a city with lots of different people who have different legal habits. I don't think the liquor stores need to "yuppie-up" their selection for the 10 or so new customers they are likely to get from improving their wine selection. If you want Georgetown wine shops... then either move there or get into your SUV and drive over. However, if everyone started doing that, the city would probably pass a law stopping the sale of only one bottle of wine at a time... worse yet, banning the sale of 2-buck chuck yuppie urine... that would probably keep the undesirables out of Georgetown and send them back to their gentrified hobbles.

[Richard]

At least for GA Ave!

[Bill]

Ask Jim Graham.

[Viipottaja]

FANTASTIC NEWS! What can we do to promote similar ban for Columbia Heights?

[Susan]

This is great news. I lived in Mt. Pleasant when their singles sales ban went into effect, and it made a big difference. I also hope that this will encourage some of the convenience stores & liquor stores to improve their selection.

[clancymac]

Regardless of the merits of the single sale ban, what boggles my mind is that Decatur Liquors would rather spend money on lawyers to fight it rather than use that money to improve the quality of the store's inventory so that they would not feel so compelled to rely on single sales. The community in 16th Street Heights has urged Decatur Liquors repeatedly to increase their wine selection, and would much rather spend its money supporting the local Decatur Liquors than driving over to Calvert Woodley. Groups of residents have banded together to purchase multi-case orders of wine from Decatur Liquors to encourage them, but unfortunately, although Decator Liquors happily ordered the cases (and at good prices) it has not translated those buyer preferences into making significant changes in its inventory selections.