How much driving around do you do for a better deal on booze?

[corkybstewart]

Luckily I live in a very small town and I'm retired so I have time to research it. Albertson's grocery store is where I buy my wines-best selection and far cheaper than anywhere else in town, but their beer selection is not great and their whiskey prices are outrageous. Walmart has Bacardi Dark rum at a 40% discount to other stores, but their whiskey is expensive and their beer selection is horrible. Walgreens Drug Store(across the street from Albertsons and 2 blocks west of Walmart) has amazing prices on whiskey, but their beer and wine selections/prices suck. how about where you live? Is there one place you can go and get all you need?

 

[day_trippr]

When I was in my 20s I had an unfortunate incident on the Coors Brewery Tour that immediately resulted in a three year Crown Royal jag.
I accumulated dozens of purple felt bags over those years, before recovering from the root cause of that binge.

Since that time - now, what, four-something decades - the closest I get to spirits is fruity rum drinks when I'm on an Out Island in the Bahamas.
I greatly prefer my home brew or a reasonable commercial facsimile thereof to spirits.

All that cruft related, I am told locals go up to New Hampshire to avail themselves of tax-free liquor. Maybe there's something like that within reach?

Cheers!

 

[corkybstewart]

When I was in my 20s I had an unfortunate incident on the Coors Brewery Tour that immediately resulted in a three year Crown Royal jag.
I accumulated dozens of purple felt bags over those years, before recovering from the root cause of that binge.

Since that time - now, what, four-something decades - the closest I get to spirits is fruity rum drinks when I'm on an Out Island in the Bahamas.
I greatly prefer my home brew or a reasonable commercial facsimile thereof to spirits...

Cheers!

I had the opposite-a health issue(finally successfully dealt with)forced me to quit drinking beer, and retirement forced me to consider how much I spent. Homebrewing is days from restarting, happy days are here again. My whiskey drinking is 2 small glasses between 9 and 11 PM, so a bottle lasts a while.

 

[corkybstewart]

When I was in my 20s I had an unfortunate incident on the Coors Brewery Tour that immediately resulted in a three year Crown Royal jag.
I accumulated dozens of purple felt bags over those years, before recovering from the root cause of that binge.

Since that time - now, what, four-something decades - the closest I get to spirits is fruity rum drinks when I'm on an Out Island in the Bahamas.
I greatly prefer my home brew or a reasonable commercial facsimile thereof to spirits.

All that cruft related, I am told locals go up to New Hampshire to avail themselves of tax-free liquor. Maybe there's something like that within reach?

Cheers!

On a comical note about Crown. My boss was a Chivas drinker. One year I planned to buy him a bottle for his birthday(November 15)but the gas station I bought booze at was out so I bought him a bottle of Crown instead. We went to his house, had a couple of drinks and I went home. The next day his wife thanked me for buying him Crown(Instant A@@hole she said). At Christmas we were at his house, his grandson wanted something to put his new marbles in and John told me to get him a Crown bag out of the kitchen drawer. In 40 days he had accumulated at least 2 dozen purple bags. That's when i understood his wife's comment.

 

[day_trippr]

Hahahaha! Great story!
I am obviously not a spirits connoisseur but the one thing I remember from those days was how smooth Crown Royal was.
I don't know how they work that magic considering they claim they blend "50 full bodied Canadian Whiskeys" in every bottle but I'm confident it's one of the best whiskeys for wimps like me...

Cheers!

 

[grampamark]

TL;DR-A lot.

We live in rural Montana, most of the time, so I drive a lot just to buy anything. The closest grocery store, in a town of 800, is 25 miles away, the closest “real” grocery store is almost 70 miles, closest liquor store (which is about the size of a large, walk-in closet and has a correspondingly small inventory) is 50.

We live in Billings, the largest city in the state, part of the time. Although Billings is small, as large cities go, it’s the biggest town for about 500 miles in any direction and serves as the trade /entertainment/educational/health care center for about 500K folks in a 5 state region. So, Billings has to play the role of big city, and has a much larger range of services and amenities than most towns of similar size.

At the farm-well, it’s good that I’m a homebrewer. Go online, make a few selections, and in 5 days, or so, a truck leaves a big box at the end of the driveway. Beer for another 6 months.

In the city, there’s a State liquor store 5 minutes from our house. The State of Montana has a monopoly on the distribution of distilled spirits, and dedicated liquor stores and bars are the only retailers that can sell hard liquor in the state. The State stores (which are operated by contractors) pay the lowest wholesale prices, and thus have the lowest retail prices. So I just stock up when we’re in town.

There are 10 breweries/taprooms in the city and several specialty stores with a decent selection of beer which is either imported, or not regularly distributed in this area, so there is a choice of craft beers which aren’t Boston Lager.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Eh, I'm at the point in life that time is more valuable than money, so I get what I get where I see it.

That said, I do buy a lot from Costco and BevMo. I'm at Costco weekly, so I can stock up on most things. BevMo has a couple wines that my wife likes on their 5 cent sale, so every time she's running low I set up a "buy online / pick up in store" thing with them and replenish her supply.

I forget if I actually wrote that I'd "keep her always in wine" in our wedding vows or if we just joke about it a lot, but she's never been without wine as long as we've been together!

 

[CKuhns]

Yep, one place i get all i need is literally Zero miles , yards or feet from my front door. (except for the past 7 or 8 months) - My brother in-law manages a liquor store in Minneapolis. I get my liquor from him at a very small discount off retail. If there is something pretty obscure im looking for he can generally find it. With the perk of having it hand delivered is just about as good as it gets. He just lives a few blocks from us and delivers anything i want. (Yes, i am spoiled)

Unfortunately earlier this year the store was looted and pretty well destroyed. They eere able to rebuild. Just reopened a week or so ago. Glad they are back, and sounds like they are getting back into the swing of things.

Oh and @day_trippr my daughter at thanksgiving introduced us to Crown Royal Apple and cranberry juice. (Pretty darned tasty.)

 

[Steveruch]

Luckily I live in a very small town and I'm retired so I have time to research it. Albertson's grocery store is where I buy my wines-best selection and far cheaper than anywhere else in town, but their beer selection is not great and their whiskey prices are outrageous. Walmart has Bacardi Dark rum at a 40% discount to other stores, but their whiskey is expensive and their beer selection is horrible. Walgreens Drug Store(across the street from Albertsons and 2 blocks west of Walmart) has amazing prices on whiskey, but their beer and wine selections/prices suck. how about where you live? Is there one place you can go and get all you need?

What state do you live in?
When I lived in Vancouver, Washington going across into Portland, Oregon was worth it. I now live in California and booze is fantastically cheaper here.

 

[Immocles]

I'm a one stop shopper. No beer or booze in retail/grocery stores here in MN, so I generally give most of my business to the local, privately owned Liquor store. Pay a little extra, but he keeps a better selection in both beer and booze and I like having his German selection around.

Side note on Crown. I used to be a 98% booze only guy up until about 24 when I stumbled onto crown and waters. I found that it was one of the few drinks I could drink all night on and not black out. I hated remembering all the antics the next day, though, and it got me to switch to beer full time!

 

[Transamguy77]

I live in Pa and I can only buy wine and spirits at the state store and beer is bought at a beer distributor and a handful of grocery stores. For years you could only buy beer by the case unless you went to a bar or 6 pack store.

When I was in Ca it was great that you could buy everything almost anywhere, but the selection was pretty limited (at least where I lived on the Central coast). I did drink a lot of Firestone Walker because I only lived about 10 mins south of them and I tried to drink local I had a couple of great breweries near by.

 

[bracconiere]

not much, the last time i bought alcohol was 2-9-20....a 30 pack of High Life.

unless i'm in a hurry, i'd sooner just buy apple juice and ferment it myself.

 

[FromZwolle]

not much, the last time i bought alcohol was 2-9-20....a 30 pack of High Life.

unless i'm in a hurry, i'd sooner just buy apple juice and ferment it myself.

a 30 rack will keep you on track.

 

[FromZwolle]

I don't have to drive very far for anything, as i have 6 grocery stores and two decent liquor stores on the way home from work. i'll go 45+ minutes for a brewery on the rare occasion that i can do that, but not too much further that that just for beer/wine/etc.

 

[corkybstewart]

I live in Pa and I can only buy wine and spirits at the state store and beer is bought at a beer distributor and a handful of grocery stores. For years you could only buy beer by the case unless you went to a bar or 6 pack store.

When I was in Ca it was great that you could buy everything almost anywhere, but the selection was pretty limited (at least where I lived on the Central coast). I did drink a lot of Firestone Walker because I only lived about 10 mins south of them and I tried to drink local I had a couple of great breweries near by.

In New Mexico you can buy any booze almost anywhere-one of the best places to buy good beer for a while was a gas station across the street from my office. When I would go there in the morning to buy a burrito, there would be dozens of oilfield workers buying pints and half pints of cheap booze to put in their lunch boxes-that was scary because my employees were on the same roads these drunks were driving.

 

[corkybstewart]

What state do you live in?
When I lived in Vancouver, Washington going across into Portland, Oregon was worth it. I now live in California and booze is fantastically cheaper here.

I'm in New Mexico.

 

[jrgtr42]

I have a couple big chain stores near me - a Wegman's and a Total Wine. I try not to shop at either one - though I did go to TW for the BCBS release couple weeks ago - they get massive amounts of standard and the varients.
In general, I will pay a couple more bucks to support the local, mom-and-pop stores nearby. Most of the time I can get what I need there, and if I have questions, they have far more knowledge and experience than anyone I've talked to at the big guys.

 

[Steveruch]

I live in Pa and I can only buy wine and spirits at the state store and beer is bought at a beer distributor and a handful of grocery stores. For years you could only buy beer by the case unless you went to a bar or 6 pack store.

Where in PA? I used to live in Allentown and am thinking about moving to Pittsburgh.

 

[Transamguy77]

I live in Perkasie, minus the time I spent in Ca I’ve lived in this area for over 20 years.

I just see you live in Ca, where at? We were on the central coast

 

[Steveruch]

I live in Perkasie, minus the time I spent in Ca I’ve lived in this area for over 20 years.

I just see you live in Ca, where at? We were on the central coast

Crescent City, a short distance south of the Oregon border on Hwy 101.

 

[bleme]

I don't think I buy wine from anywhere except Grocery Outlet.
I don't drink much distilled - maybe a bottle a year - and that always comes from either Grocery Outlet or Costco.
I don't really go shopping for beer but when we buy groceries I might pick up something that I haven't tried yet, even if it comes in a 24-pack assortment with other beers that I have already tried.

 

[Transamguy77]

Crescent City, a short distance south of the Oregon border on Hwy 101.

Oh that’s way north of we were, I’ve been to Pittsburgh a couple of times, I like where we are on this side of the state, that why when we came back we came back here.