Perhaps they didn't pay the alcohol tax correctly (or at all) to the state?

Well if they can't sell it, I would certainly be willing to take it of their hands for them, wouldn't want it to go to waste. 😁

Ah yes those state tax mandates, always kicking in the week before Thanksgiving. Pesky laws!

Costco is across the street. Problem solved!

Sounds like they got in trouble with the liquor control board.

Rebrand it as hand sanitizer, no liquor tax required.

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What about mouthwash you don’t ID to buy it and you can’t arrive too late

Due to government regulation Murder also illegal at this store

Sounds like we have missed some good deals. Jk kidding kinda

What about huffing paint?

I wish you woulda told me sooner!

My best guess is their computer isn't set up to calculate the tax correctly.

Damned red tape just never ends!

When I briefly had to work at The Yelm Walmart, their license to sell liquor was suspended for 2 weeks because someone discounted a liquor sale too much. The state has limits on it.

It’s ok, due to the real-estate value inflation and property tax hike Washington residents can’t afford alcohol.

I ran into the same problem at my local Walgreens and they told me it was due to an error in paying the wa state liquor tax and they didn't know when it would be back to normal. That was about a week ago.

Oh, NOW you tell me

Ohhh shit. They better get that shit straightened out QUICK!

"It's vodka, it goes bad once it's opened."

Ah yes, the "we fucked up so we're blaming the state for taxes in the first place" strategy

That dastardly Inslee is up to his old tricks again!

Personally, my guess is that the store is owned by a Republican who is trying to make a statement

I'm sorry, are you saying that wealthy homeowners are being crushed under the weight of their rapidly increasing wealth?

By the same logic I would be unable to drive my car due to state tax mandates.

Or they got busted selling to minors

So what it really should be saying is they fucked up not Washington?

I worked someplace that had to stop selling alcohol due to unpaid payroll taxes.

So by this method: sales with the corrected tax is worse than no sales, no tax (especially with backtax+penalty pending)? Yeah, probably a case of selling to minors. Can't imagine WA wants to squander revenue opportunity.

Yep… two broken ribs. It happens

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Who goes to Walgreens for liquor?

Bless your heart.

Welcome to reddit, have a nice day.

Yeah it could be an issue of there being 2 separate taxes on one item.

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Looks like free real estate if they left it out and cant sell it.

They're probably stuck in some red tape hell because LCB's processes suck ass.

Alcohol sales rep in Thurston county here. Can confirm. Washington has some weird liquor laws. For example, alcohol distributors aren't allowed to take back/ exchange discontinued items. Imo, its good customer service to do that for stores. Also, Washington has one of the highest liquor taxes in the country. Everyone has to add 20% to the price at the register

Drunks.

But please leave it on the shelf while you can't sell it, lol

> one of the highest liquor taxes in the country.

Thanks Costco!

ironic since costco f'd up our liquor laws.

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The state regulators probably finned them and shut down their liquor license. They must now renew it. QFC came close to loosing theirs and they decided to go extreme and force customers to have their id scanned. You can refuse please just don't be an @$$ about it. Thank you. No id no sale. It doesn't matter if you're 55+ all get checked.

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How so?

Edit: thanks for the explanation, guys. I'm a transplant so these liquor laws are bizarre.

Wait, I think I've seen this one before

They are the ones who wrote & lobbied the law themselves that supported big box stores when it came to distribution. Thus screwing smaller private business owners who wanted in. Many smaller alcohol & sprits stores went bankrupt 1-2 years after opening.

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“I think that’s another one of mom’s little fibs, you know, like ‘I’ll sacrifice anything for my children’ “

…and we end up with higher prices and a nearly 30% tax.

It’s not going to work. Just like making drugs illegal doesn’t work and will never work.

Thank you for describing why it was funny.

For a second there i thought you wrote “rape tape”

Oh is that why they started that bullshit? So fucking annoying

Fred Meyer is the same exact way and has been since July.

“You see, officer, they said they weren’t selling it, but it was still displayed, so I figured it must be free.”

It makes about as much sense.

Pay for something else of equal value and then take the whiskey?

Great, now I need two drinks.

Didn't you hear about the law they passed that makes murder legal if your rich?

Socially starving people with foot sores.

May I suggest the new PNW lager from ninkasi. Just had some the other day. Wish I had a burger with it. Great lunch beer

It's the best option, really. Finding somewhere to store it in the backroom, figuring out what to put on the shelf in the interim and then having to swap it all back out once it can be sold again is way more effort than just leaving it on the shelf.

Another sales rep chiming in. Our laws be weird as fuck, man. The amount of times I’ve had customers complain about how I need to take items back is insane.

Walgreens: “See, the way my account is set up is”

I got carded there the other day. I'm 51. Confused the heck out of me. I've bought hundreds of dollars of booze before

Christmas lights up year round, eh?

There are more responsibile drinkers than the other way around. Punishing everyone for the actions of a few is crap. Maybe look at the sociology that's almost exclusively part of any substance abuse disorder

Heh just noticed the misspelled word. Bonus.

I suppose that explains why Freddy's has so many cash rebate offers for booze instead of just marking them down?

With Tim chair thief Eyman.

The taxes were already included in the price prior to the law change when they were state run. After the change we added another middleman, and the state was going to get their same cut.

The voters wanted it.

Liquor licenses were a pretty popular cudgel during covid issues. Personally I have zero issues with that, but the state probably spent way more on warning letters and inspections and enforcement, than it would have ever made in revenue

Really, Diane?

One reason in Longview to run to Rainer and stock up.

They are ... vice signalling.

"tax mandates" sounds better than "we effed up and our license was suspended"...

So you can still steal them , right?

Source?

Searching "wa liquor tax one year" turned up literally nothing related to the tax only being in place for a year.

Also they will not be selling crack due to the state’s rules.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

We are unable to leave prison due to state law mandates.

No, greedy ass state politicians did that all on their own. Only problem with the liquor laws here is the taxes.

Cut spending on worthless bullshit like “raising awareness about homelessness” and cut the taxes.

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Just at Rite Aid, can you confirm in store murder is still OK there. So I am guessing Rite Aid paid their thunder dome taxes.

Seems like their license might be suspended due to not paying the taxes properly. That's usually why places have to temporarily stop selling even with stock on hand.

I mean, the store just gets to make money then. If the store screwed up it’s about making sure the store can’t just buy their way out of it.

Nope, we love the hooch. Not really a republican but not on the left either. Moot point we all love the hooch.

Agreed. We're a state run by Democrats and will tax everything as much as possible damn it. Do enjoy that additional .46 cent a gallon gas tax come January. You're welcome.

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I'll just have to soothe myself with the extra money I keep by having both a high paying job and no income tax in this state.

I absolutely adore how he's "that dude that stole a chair" now. Love it. Inslee ragged him about it at one point. :: chef's kiss::

All I can see is folks wanting their drink, getting pissed, knocking bottles off the shelves. But I get the work and space.

And better public services than red hellscapes

You forgot to mention that prior to Costco you could only buy from WA. State liquor Control Board (the state government owned and operated all the liquor stores). And when that law passed the state was required to either sell or close the stores owned and operated by the state. The law also stated that you had to have at least 10,000 square feet of retail sales space.

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I live nearby and was there yesterday thinking....some accountant f'd up and is blaming it on a minimum wage team member who is blaming it on the state.

Gig Harbor has loads of alcoholics too....I suppose they will have to drive over to Tacoma to stock up

This.

Sounds soooo much better than “We sold to a minor and got caught, so the state liquor control board shut down sales.”

Technically, it’s true since LCB defines the taxing structure of spirits as well.

That would be weird, since the tax has been in place since 2012.

Two pharmacists enter, one pharmacist leaves!

I’m not sure what their source is…. But they said “liter” not liquor.. in reference to WA spirit liter tax not the liquor tax.

https://komonews.com/amp/news/local/bill-introduced-to-gradually-lower-state-liquor-taxes One year, eight years…only a minor difference.

The state also had lots of small stores around the state that sold liquor - I guess acting as an agent of the state, keeping sales separate.

I don't know what it was like on the Westside of Washington but whe i was in Eastern Washington you could only buy from the state there weren't any private owned stores that I was aware of.

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There were contract stores all over the state that sold state liquor:

"...contract stores that sold spirits for the state in less populated areas... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608622/

Like the little store in "downtown" Roslyn that had liquor on the wall behind the counter. Or the grocery store out in Ilwaco that had a gated off section to sell alcohol.

Yeah according to a cashier I talked to at the FM store in Lacey. It has to do with the WA LCB to crack down to stop sales of alcohol to minors. She also told me they now card anyone no matter how old they look for tobacco sales, lighters, and even caught medicine.

Someone needs to go be poor in a red state for a year to truly enjoy what a democrat controlled government actually gives them.

Well what about the supreme court....

Basically how weed sales work in DC.

Free gift of marijuana with the purchase of this $50 postcard.

More like they probably charged the taxes and didn't properly remit them to the state. As I recall that's an automatic suspension of the license to sell until the situation is fully investigated, fines are paid, and they give the go ahead to sell again.

As much as possible?

Oh sweet summer child, none of our taxes are all that high in this state.

It's the same product anywhere you buy it. Probably aren't going to find much selection of top shelf spirits though.

I wish we could just go back to the state run liquor stores so much cheaper

Would you like to have a bunch of small liquor stores pop up close to your neighborhood? Imagine what that would do to your property values. Much more sensible to sell alcohol at established big box stores.

I don’t think I like your attitude

They have to sell to a lot of minors before it goes past the fines stage and into the "revoke your liquor license" stage.

License to sell has been temporarily revoked by OLCC

Preach it. My parents were military, so I moved all around the states as a kid, and a little bit after out on my own. Blue states are veritable paradises compared to the 3rd-world-country that is red-state USA.

I'm more than happy with that .46 extra a gallon with all the positive benefits living in the area has. And WA actually has some of the gentlist taxes I've seen. We don't even have income taxes in this state.

First time is mandatory lose sale privileges for a while + fine AFAIK. Regardless, maybe this isn’t their first time?

The Fred Meyer’s by my house got caught 5 times selling to minors, they had to completely remodel and section off the alcohol area and are required to scan driver license for each sale for 2 years.

This place got 1 or 2 warnings.

I don't understand why drugstores and pharmacies need to sell alcohol or cigarettes. All I go to Walgreens for is prescriptions.

Maybe alcohol should be taxed according to the cost and harm it does to the community. 30% is probably right for that.

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Ah so you want the government to dictate morality. Sounds like you should move to Iran, they even have a police force specifically to do this!

Only like 3 where I am...

The correct response to reading thisbsign, on that display, is to ask if you can borrow the spirit/booze and return it later, like a library book

"...their same cut" is taxes. You are implying that the state-operated stores made a profit, which they did not. Costco and Safeway, the two corporations that lobbied aggressively for the chance to sell you alcohol at a +30% markup (but told everyone they'd sell it cheaper because of their size), also collects the same alcohol taxes. Are you paying less, as they told you would happen? Definitely not. Did it create any new jobs? No. Actually, over 5,500 state employees attached to state liquor sales lost their jobs.

Much of this discussion is fed by republicans who would like to think they somehow "owned the libs" by taking away government control of a commodity and handing it over to 2 large corporations so they can make a huge profit. The truth is, everyone now pays a lot more, because you were duped.

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Nbd. They cant sell it so ill just walk out with it. Problem solved.

That was my point that I was making.

A bunch? Realistically every neighborhood only needs one. It’d be cool to be able to walk to a liquor store rather than get in the car and go to Fred Meyer.

Least unhinged libertarian

But they feel like they are and that’s all that matters. /s

This is a job for shoplifting!!!

It doesn’t take morals to see that alcohol is a legal poison 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes, I realize that now. My comment should have been more generally applied to to post.

Not about the morality to it but the cost of things should take into account the cost to society.

Washingtonian turned Oregonian here. I second the Ninkasi lager but also put forth, for your consideration, Rogue’s 2022 Santa’s Reserve. For the discerning connoi-brew-sseur looking for a stoutier more potent libation. Had it two days ago. It decidedly does not make one wish for a burger, but in a good way.

Saw a sign like this at the Lacey Walgreens.

Maybe this is why I see so many shopping carts in the liquor area/aisle full of random mixes of liquor? Often, the bottles in there are covered in dust, as if they've been around for years...

Yeah. The other shitty thing is they can’t discount below cost of the product.

Right out of the Narcissists playbook, it's a best seller right now!

They’re free, they can’t sell but no one said they can’t give them away

Unnable

Live in one of the reddest counties in one of the reddest districts in Washington. Can confirm, public services are a hellscape of little public transport and dodgy Internet from 20 years ago thanks to selling out to Comcast every chance we get.

Private utilities are probably the least dependable version of utilities in my experience.

Private anything sucks because the goal is money. You can’t achieve great things when you’re focused on the wrong outcome.

Like what exactly? How are these taxes being used to mitigate that damage vs just filling general fund coffers? I’m talking about direct action not bullshit grift programs like “raising awareness” or whatever.

Increased cost of healthcare , law enforcement, criminal activity due to alcohol. Washington’s goes in to main revenue fund. It helps go to these costs and preventing something like an income tax in the state.

There are a lot of people that feel the same way, with just as much certainty, about gay marriage or a whole host of other “moral issues”. You are strengthening their arguments here with attitudes like that…..

“It’s only the things that I personally don’t like that we should have the government regulate”

> state politicians did that all on their own.

they had nothing to do with it. Costco wrote the initiative, gathered the signatures, spent a boatload promoting it and the people narrowly voted for it, unfortunately.

Home owners are being crushed under the property tax hikes due to inflated value of homes due to a manipulated system that benefits the real-estate market and the state. Anyone who has ever sold a home knows the appraisers appraise it for what you want to sell it for. There is no argument. And the state loves the new taxes that push people from their homes and potentially Washington.

I am not thinking that much into this take I’m just not upset that alcohol is expensive or otherwise more difficult to access considering it’s harmful effects (big and small)

Ah so yeah, it goes into grifting bullshit “general fund”

Show me that money going directly to what’s it intended for or it’s just the state reaching into the pockets of the working class for no good reason.

No I’m talking about the bullshit morality police that first decided that certain products were, usually according to their religion, sinful and should be taxed higher. If it were about health you’d see fast food at 30%+ taxes as well since that’s a much larger (pun intended) issue in society.

Seems like you need to do a bit of research on what taxes go toward. Just because you dont' benefit from every dollar spent directly doesn't mean you are not in benefit of the money spent. As someone that pays more taxes than most people, i don't agree with everything my taxes are spent on but do understand the reasoning of why they choose to invest in x.

Hope you feel the same way about junk food, fast food, and a whole bunch of other every day products which are terrible for your health

I actually do

No that’s not at all what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that if the government is specifically taxing something “because of all the harm it does society” and then doesn’t actually spend that money exclusively on those issues then it’s a fucking scam.

I doubt alcohol tax covers the cost that the state government pays for services i mentioned above. 24b of the budget alone is spent on health care.

Pretty sure it’s about double that and I’ve never been able to find a good breakdown of the actual costs. Run a business like that and you’ll go to jail for fraud.

Im not sure what part of the revenue category it falls in but Washington state brought in 53b in 2021. 48b of it is not from alcohol tax.

https://www.wastatepta.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-Citizens-Guide-to-Operating-Budget.pdf

Companies don't have to disclose alot of information. They use private subsidiaries to hide any detailed financial breakdowns they want. They government is held to a much higher level of transparency than even a public company.

> Home owners are being crushed under the property tax

😂

The people who bought a house for 300k that is now worth a million dollars are being absolutely CRUSHED under the weight of all that extra money!! They just can't handle all this extra wealth!!

And even with all those laws Washington put in place, protecting them from tax increases so that they get grandfathered in and continue to pay the lower tax rates even as new home buyers get screwed by both inflated housing prices and higher taxes, these older home owners are the real victims!

At least you’re ideologically consistent then.

But do realize that your logic is consistent with that of the taliban.