Montgomery County, Maryland is one of the only county governments in the entire United States of America that controls the retail sale, distribution and wholesaling of liquor and spirits, while simultaneously controlling the whole-sale distribution of beer and wine to retailers and restaurants / bars as well. This means hundreds of thousands of adult patrons and consumers in Montgomery County, MD are given few options on the type of liquor or spirits they’d like to consume, or from where they’d like to purchase it. Only five grocery stores in the entire square mileage of MoCo are able to sell retail beer and wine, another example of stupid state and county regulation interfering with basic adult consumer choice.
As a result, thousands buy their liquor for far less from Costco in Washington, DC or their beer and wine from Congressman (D-MD 6) David Trone’s Total Wine & More in Northern Virginia. Cheers to this idea.
It is all a vestige of 1950s law / regulation and this liquor ‘monopoly’ itself is a vestige of the Prohibition era, which was a regressive, universally-recognized failure in America. Such fossilized law relics persist because Montgomery County politicians and Annapolis delegates lack the courage to do what should have occurred 30+ years ago: get government out of the liquor distribution business.
One of the current reasons given for the local county government to hold a monopoly on the sale of liquor is to raise money for the government. MoCo’s ABS claims it is “Generating more than $35 million in net income annually, its profits are used to pay down County debt with a large portion deposited in the general fund to pay for resident services that would otherwise be funded by County tax dollars.” This claim is very dubious but we’ll play along. There is no doubt being a monopoly can, in theory, be quite profitable. This is economic organization 101 and why we generally like to see healthy market competition… not monopolies. Imagine the local government controlling lemonade distribution. I’m sure they’d rake in the profits in July.
So while Montgomery County promotes drinking and liquor purchases and lower-cost liquor prices via advertising, colorful mailers and expanded retail store sites, the County also wants you to be “safe” during the holiday season. To help you get home from the debauchery and merriment it helps to promote and supply via its liquor distribution, the MoCo ABS is handing out coasters. Yes, “free” drink coasters.
Sell the liquor, seed the party time fun, but then put a QR code on a drink coaster and call it a wrap. You’ve “solved” the drunk driving issue. Or at least made a lame attempt at signaling such.
If people get in trouble with MoCo laws because of consuming a product MoCo government sells and promotes, well… it can’t possibly be MoCo government’s fault, right?
