Steveruch
Well-Known Member
I went to get a 1.75 L bottle of rum, in CA and paid $10.75. The same size in WA cost over $23!
WA booze ripoff
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Same brand/grade? Was the CA duty-free?
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Steveruch
Well-Known Member
It was the low end brand in both cases. The WA bottle was bought at Winco foods and the CA bottle was bought at Walmart.
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
Washington privatized liquor sales a couple years ago. They all come down here to get it now.
Why? The OP paid half as much in CA...
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
Yep. California has it right. When Washington privatized their liquor sales they added a bunch of taxes. Oregon's liquor sales is still run by the state. Throw in the benefit of no sales tax and it's Oregon trail all over again.
triethylborane
Well-Known Member
Lol the people vote to eliminate the state monopoly, the state eliminates the monopoly on sales/pricing but imposes various excise taxes in addition to retail prices. Classic.
Don't talk to loud, California will want to change things!
triethylborane
Well-Known Member
Probably best that I not get into a discussion on California.
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
Cheap booze in California? Sounds tempting but..... I'm still not moving there.....
Yeah. Try owning a vehicle in incorporated King County right now. Friend of mine has a truck over 8 years old and the tabs are over $300...we're in unincorporated and my tabs are about $85. Gotta love (NOT!) Sound Transit.
This is anything but a "be thankful" reply because comparing booze prices in Canada and the US is like chalk and cheese, but the cheapest 1.75L of gut-rot white rum in British Columbia is $51.49 CND or ~$40.00 USD.
Yeah, but you get to live in BC and don’t have to live in California. That’s a win all day long and money well spent.
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
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Steveruch
Well-Known Member
There are areas in CA that you couldn't pay me enough to visit, much less live there, but it is fantastically beautiful here just south of OR near Hwy. 101.
True with the Cubans.
knotquiteawake
Well-Known Member
One of the few things I missed about California was that you could buy liquor in the Grocery Store, Gas Station, etc... it was great. Here in Texas some counties don't even have liquor stores. Liquor can only be sold IN liquor stores and they're ALL closed on Sunday. Also you can't buy beer on Sunday before noon.
Its all those old school "Blue" laws. Just like the car dealerships HAVE TO be closed either Saturday or Sunday, they ARE NOT allowed to be open all weekend.
Its all those old school "Blue" laws. Just like the car dealerships HAVE TO be closed either Saturday or Sunday, they ARE NOT allowed to be open all weekend.
I hear you.
We just got rid of our Sunday sales ban in MN last year, after 5 or 6 tries in the Legislature. (Still have a car dealer ban on Sundays, though.) And opposition to the bills had nothing to do with temperance; the push-back came from trucker unions (who were afraid they'd have to work another day), and municipal liquor stores who were appalled that the free market might cut a little farther into their profits.
We spend some time in San Diego every winter, and I enjoy filling up a grocery cart with booze at Von's.
Plenty of beautiful places to live in this country without subjecting oneself to that madness.
Northern_Brewer
British - apparently some US company stole my name
Whereas here in the mother country minds are boggling that 1.75l is somehow the standard measure of any kind of spirits... Almost all spirits come in 70cl in the EU. Typically it'll be ~US$24/C$29 for 1 litre of supermarket spirits or 70cl of basic branded stuff like Bacardi, Smirnoff, Gordons etc. so I guess it's coming in just a bit cheaper than you for the white label stuff.
Still, it gets worse when it comes to beer, the UK has 13% of the EU's population and drinks ~13% of the EU's beer, but pays ~40% of the total beer duty in the EU.
Be interesting to see how that changes after brexit.
I was for privitization, until I read the proposal. Then I realized it was stupid. Costco basically rammed it through the initiative process, and spent something like 21 million in advertising. So now we pay store markup AND excise tax AND sales tax. But now we can drink Kirkland signature scotch...
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Steveruch
Well-Known Member
Hmm; 2 acres with no mortgage surrounded by trees, plenty of rain that means no drought and clean air, less than 3 miles from the beach, 4 beautiful grandkids, a loving son and daughter in law who are making us welcome. I can live with that "madness".
And most importantly: no fecking snow.
And I'm with you 100%. But, you're foolish if you think only California can offer that!
And you might have been misinterpreting me, now that I see you're in Vancouver. I'm talking about California.
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Steveruch
Well-Known Member
In this case it is only in CA as the two acres without a mortgage are owned by my son and his wife.
The Vancouver location is out of date, we've been in northern CA for almost a month now.
As I'm watching 8+ inches of snow pile up outside and the forecast saying we won't get above freezing for at least another week, I'm thinking CA looks pretty good right now.
Or Vancover. Or Texas. Or Phoenix....
Or Vancover. Or Texas. Or Phoenix....
Every time I go to Canada I try to bring back a couple bottles of Havana Club (the Cuban stuff, not the Bacardi rip off crap) and I find it is priced similar to what I would pay for good rum here in Oregon. As whole we are paying an arm and leg. Got to the Bahamas or the Caribbean and rum is cheaper the beer and bottled water. Example is English Harbor Rum for Antigua. About $30 here and I got a bottle in English Harbor Antigua a few years ago and paid about $10.
