File this under “Stuff you can do in Britishland that you can’t do in Murka”:
Back when I lived in Chicago, I used to joke that as you traveled south from there, the gun laws became easier and the liquor laws more stupid. (We could buy Scotch at the Treasure Island supermarket 24/7 except for midnight-midday on Sundays. But a gun? Fergeddabahtit. In Texas, you can buy a gun at a gun show without any hassle, but gawd help you if you try to order a whisky in a dry-county restaurant.)
It looks as though the same parallel works in an east-west direction vis-à-vis the UK and the US.
Of course, I think that Amazon Over Here offers liquor over the Internet simply because of the strange and unpredictable hours of business that UK retailers inflict on their customers.
I had never noticed that inverse correlation until now… but it stands pretty much everywhere I’ve lived. While it’s probably not 1:1 for every place in the country, it’s a pretty good tell. To wit:
AL – No booze on Sunday, it’s only available at ‘package stores’, and gunshops on every block.
VA – ALL liquor sales go through the state-controlled ABC stores… Gun show every weekend.
Meanwhile, across the river in DC, a liquor store on every block, ONE FFL in the city (at least for a while).
CA – Every grocery store has a hard liquor aisle, and the gun laws are, well, CA gun laws…
What gets me here in CA is that marijuana is legal, and it’s illegal to drive while high, yet it’s the rare day that I DON’T smell weed billowing out of at least one car when I ride home from work on the motorcycle. You’d think the CHPs on bikes would be tagging jokers left and right for driving high, but it doesn’t appear to be the case. Hell, the DMV reeked of weed when I went in to sort out plates for the bike.
In fact you can ship spirits to most states– I believe only six or seven prohibit it. I’ve ordered rare and odd whiskies many times due to a lack of selection at local stores, and a passionate hatred of driving into NYC just to find something I like.
Amazon’s service for alcohol is almost top-notch. They’re very good dealing with breakages in transit and spoilage too. I once bought a case of some wine through them and the first two bottles were off so I contacted Amazon to advise them and they refunded me for the lot without asking me to return the rest (which I opened and tipped down the drain after receiving the refund).