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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Liqour Stores
Posted by: Bobbie McDonnell ()
Date: January 21, 2010 10:26PM

Here's what I wonder. Supposedly, the sales of ABC Stores is going to raise all sorts of money for the state. In order to do so...the prospective buyers are going to want to make a lot of money. How are they going to do so?

1. They can hire fewer people and pay them minimum wage.
2. I assume each store will be individually owned and will therefore have less bargaining power with their local liqour and wine wholesale distributors. So..can we expect prices to go up?
3. Will they be allowed to advertise? I cant wait to see those tacky liqour store TV commercials...newspaper ads...store front advertising.


Isnt paying more for liqour just like an increase in the tax on liqour? Didnt Bobbie promise no new taxes?

Any thoughts?

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: Registered Voter ()
Date: January 21, 2010 10:53PM

I am betting based on the way Virginia works they may still get supplied via the same methods currently used. All he said was they were selling the stores - not that Virginia was going to completely change the way they do business. I am sure they will be able to hire clerks at lower wages then the State employees make.

Remember, the ABC stores as they were run were still an expense for the State, and sure, they made money to some extent. But I will bet privately run stores will make more on their margins, and they will still have to pay some sort of liquor tax to the State (so the State won't lose all of the income from these stores.

EDIT: Some older numbers I found for profitability of the VA ABC Stores:

http://www.virginiaplaces.org/alcohol/abc.html

And from the ABC Site:
http://www.abc.state.va.us/salesreports/topVendors.xls

Looks like in a given year they made around $600M in gross sales (as of 2006). They are currently a profitable business - so I am sure the new owners margins will be better, and they will still have to pay State taxes.

If you can’t model the past, where you know the answer pretty well, how can you model the future? - William Happer Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2010 11:18PM by Registered Voter.

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: Timmy Kaine ()
Date: January 21, 2010 10:57PM

The big question is...

WHY DOES THIS FORUM NOT HAVE A SPELL CHECKER??????

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: Vince(1) ()
Date: January 21, 2010 11:05PM

Registered Voter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am betting based on the way Virginia works they
> may still get supplied via the same methods
> currently used. All he said was they were selling
> the stores - not that Virginia was going to
> completely change the way they do business. I am
> sure they will be able to hire clerks at lower
> wages then the State employees make.
>
> Remember, the ABC stores as they were run were
> still an expense for the State, and sure, they
> made money to some extent. But I will bet
> privately run stores will make more on their
> margins, and they will still have to pay some sort
> of liquor tax to the State (so the State won't
> lose all of the income from these stores.

How? So now the ABC stores are loosing money to the state...they arent going to change the wholesale distribution to independent stores...how is privatizing going to turn a money loosing business into a money making business?

Registered Voter...a Big talking coward..big man on FFXU...little man in life.

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: cant wait ()
Date: January 21, 2010 11:17PM

"Much of this additional revenue hinges on a reasonable increase in the number of stores. This past legislative session, state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) offered a privatization plan that would permit one retail liquor license per 10,000 people. That is actually a rather low ratio: Most states have a licensee rate of one per 2,500 to 3,000 residents. Virginia would hardly be awash in liquor stores.

But the commonwealth currently only has about 300 ABC stores to serve nearly 8 million people, or about one per 27,000 people. The District, in contrast, has more than 500 stores. D.C. consumers are much better served with broader selection, greater convenience and lower prices. Many Virginians, particularly the half-million or so who live inside the Beltway, travel into the District to buy spirits, costing Virginia revenue.

Virginia's ABC stores are a tower of mediocrity. They are centrally managed retail outlets that would have been palaces in the Soviet Union, but today they are anachronistic. They offer highly limited choices, often lacking exciting new brands or those with a cult following. Staff members generally aren't knowledgeable about how to mix drinks or make cocktails. And the prices are artificially high because there is no competition: The state decides what to charge."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110601355.html

There you go...they'll be more stores and the stores will make money buy selling more liqour....ought to make Rep Dave Albo whe defends drunk drivers happy.

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: Registered Voter ()
Date: January 21, 2010 11:21PM

Yeah, somehow it would be hard to imagine that moving the Liquor stores to private ownership wouldn't allow for increase in profits, and tax revenue to the State. Win-win all around.

If you can’t model the past, where you know the answer pretty well, how can you model the future? - William Happer Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: drink up ()
Date: January 21, 2010 11:23PM

Registered Voter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, somehow it would be hard to imagine that
> moving the Liquor stores to private ownership
> wouldn't allow for increase in profits, and tax
> revenue to the State. Win-win all around.

Yeah..win-win..liqour stores in more neighborhoods..where the darkies are...and better parties too!

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: Registered Dip SHit ()
Date: January 22, 2010 09:55AM

I do not wish to see ABC stores privatized. I believe the State should have an alcohol consumption reduction policy. And no that is not a return to Prohibition, but isn’t it pretty clear how destructive this product is to society (yea, I know most people handle it fine and have a lot of fun with it), but do we really want to enact policies that make liquor cheaper and more accessible?

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Re: Liqour Stores
Date: January 22, 2010 10:01AM

I don't see this as being a $500 million windfall for the state. First of all, you know there will be groups out there looking to buy up these stores that will get the licenses negotiated down to next to nothing. Then, if the number of liquor stores vastly increase, and they start selling cigarettes and lotto tickets and everything else that goes with a real liquor store, you can expect local communities to see their law enforcement costs go up.

Frankly, Virginia needs to get a little more with the times and be like California and allow grocery store chains to sell liquor.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: January 22, 2010 10:09AM

Timmy Kaine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The big question is...
>
> WHY DOES THIS FORUM NOT HAVE A SPELL CHECKER??????


Quote
Cary
Spell check will just make it easier for the ignorant to appear intelligent


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

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Re: Liqour Stores
Posted by: eesh ()
Date: January 22, 2010 01:16PM

WashingTone-Locian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't see this as being a $500 million windfall
> for the state. First of all, you know there will
> be groups out there looking to buy up these stores
> that will get the licenses negotiated down to next
> to nothing. Then, if the number of liquor stores
> vastly increase, and they start selling cigarettes
> and lotto tickets and everything else that goes
> with a real liquor store, you can expect local
> communities to see their law enforcement costs go
> up.
>
> Frankly, Virginia needs to get a little more with
> the times and be like California and allow grocery
> store chains to sell liquor.



I agree with you, but what about all the ABC employees that will be affected? I don't think all of them will be able to pick up where they left.

Blessed are the murderous.

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