Sally Redux

Yes that one causes a lot of confusion. I've been told it's state law in some places but not others. Trader Joe's I think says it's OK.

You'd think it was kryptonite.

Bnet36

I wonder whether that confusion stemmed from the open container laws.

I still feel some judgement when I buy alcohol on Sunday's here.... They are still getting used to the new laws. Even Jesus drank wine....gees!

Sally Redux

Jesus turned water into wine

scrubbedexpat091

At least places like California haven't figured out what a cash cow alcohol can be to the government if they take full control over the distribution and wholesale and run government liquor stores....Cha ching.

Sally Redux

Oh yeah that must be annoying.

Pulaski

Yeah, giving the government control of anything always makes it cheaper and more profitable!

The smart governments know that they should stay out of logistics and leave that to the specialists (stores, wholesalers, and distributors), then just tax the sales. THAT makes alcohol sales a cash cow, none of the expense, overheads, or administration, negligible investment (the state just needs a few inspectors/ auditors to check that taxes are being paid correctly), just wait for the taxes to roll in.

scrubbedexpat091

I was being sarcastic...

I agree with you, and no it doesn't benefit the consumer at all, prices in Canada are outrageous compared to the US and BC generally racks up the highest prices in North America for booze.

The politicians are becoming more relax on booze in BC, but they still hold an iron grip on car insurance, the profits they make off our government car insurance monopoly is huge.

The crown corporations are pretty good money makers though, they are not your typical government agencies, and are expected to turn a profit which is in turn handed over to the government.

The liquor control branch alone is expected to send 862 million in profits to government over the next year, and 2.6 billion over the next 3 years.

I am not too sure the government could make up that kind of money in just sales tax if booze was completely privatized which is likely why they wont give up control over booze, electricity, car insurance and such.

Michael

Although that may seem a lot, in 2011 the US federal government collected about $6 billion and the states another $6 billion for alcohol taxes. That's about 14x more than Canada with a population that is only about 9x more.

Usually when a monopoly runs a business, their costs are much higher than when they have competition.

scrubbedexpat091

It's only for British Columbia, not the entire country. Each province regulates booze differently.

The government isn't going to be privatizing it anytime soon, unless they can find a better way to come up with the money they siphon off these crown corporations to balance the budget.

Sucks for the consumer, but not much can be done about it.

Michael

The duty on a 1/5th of 80 proof whiskey in BC that has a cost of $20 has total taxes of $48.55 and if it cost $1 (real bad stuff), total taxes are $17.47. Average US taxes (federal and state) on the same amount of whiskey is $4.95.

As Pulaski indicated, it is all about the taxes.

The following is the tax per gallon leveled at the state level. Even Washington state ranked at number 1 ($35.22 per gallon) or about $7 per 1/5th but about 50% of the states are less than a $1 per 1/5th. Federal tax is another $2.16 per 1/5th plus sales tax needs to be added.

scrubbedexpat091

I am confused about what we are even talking about not regarding alcohol.

I have no idea which way is better or which is not for the government, but the BC government doesn't believe at this point in time they could make more off privatizing booze so the powers that be are not interested in changing it. Maybe one day they will, only time will tell. They have only recently started to relax booze regulations in BC.

Same with car insurance, electricity, and gambling.

Michael

I suspect the main reason is the same that 18 states have ABC stores. Those states implemented ABC liquor stores (many are state run but some states have private monopoly stores) on the assumption that the state can more effectively control the sale and distribution of alcohol and not for tax purposes.

Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) or Monopoly States

All states control the sale of alcohol and except for the 18 ABC states, all the others just regulate the sale of alcohol and do not get involved in the operations of the business.

Pulaski

This.

Bloody self righteousness of the Biblical crowd who don't believe that prohibition should have been abolished, and that's why there are still dry counties and dry towns in states across The South.

There are frequent votes as one by one the dry counties and towns finally recognise, more than eighty years later, that prohibition didn't work. Every time alcohol sales come up for a vote the sale of alcohol is legalized, at least round here. The pro-alcohol sales lobby always argue that either they can't get a Applebees/ Ruby Tuesday/ Outback in town if they can't sell alcohol, or that local restaurants can't compete with the Applebees/ Ruby Tuesday/ Outback in the next town/ county. ..... My invariable experience is that restaurants without a liquor & beer license serve bad food, usually overcooked, though I can't see any obvious reason for the correlation.

Bob

Interesting...because MA dropped tax on booze a while ago, so they could compete with NH because a lot of retailers along the border were complaining that people just nipped over there.

RI to the south of us are now using that argument about folks nipping to MA to avoid tax to try and get tax free booze down there.

Michael

As little as the spirits, wine, and beer tax differences are for those states per gallon, I suspect that there is a greater difference between prices stores change in one state or town. I suspect each state has an alcohol lobby that argues that case as if they were really losing business.

With all the taxes imposed by those states, were are only talking about $1 per 1/5th for spirits, $0.10 per bottle of wine, and $0.02 per bottle of beer so if taxes are cut by 1/4th, that will only likely go into the business man's pocket.