No Two Buck Chuck: Screwy Maryland Alcohol Sale Laws

I was reminded of a Maryland law the other day that grocery stores cannot sell beer or wine except those grandfathered in. This means Trader Joes cannot sell two buck chuck and that I have to go to another store to purchase beer. I guess the side benefit is that there are lots of mom and pop corner stores that sell beer and wine. Some of these places are interesting like the one a few blocks away with Ethiopian dry goods, although the one on my block is basically a glorified keno (video bingo) parlor at least it has Sam Adams.

If you want to buy hard alcohol you have to go to the state liquor store that also sells beer and wine. Only as a local Silver Spring blog points out, you cannot buy a bottle opener, mixers, or cork screws. Currently, a law is being proposed which would allow those items, but to make the local mom and pop lobby happy state liquor stores would have to stop selling pretzels and soft drinks.

As someone who hates to go to multiple stores and likes cold beer and pretzels I oppose this bill. As an economist I would like to see more on if the banning of super markets from selling liquor actually has a positive impact.