Washington state liquor stores on auction block

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Super S
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Washington state liquor stores on auction block

Post by Super S »

I hope this is the correct place to post this, as it mainly pertains to Washington. Fred Meyer has been preparing for this by rearranging areas of the store, however I have not been to any other large stores recently so I am not sure who else has been making changes already.

The state-owned liquor stores are now on the auction block:

http://tdn.com/news/local/state-run-liq ... 963f4.html

This could be a very interesting transition.
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submariner
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Re: Washington state liquor stores on auction block

Post by submariner »

I'm going to move this to specialty retail since it's more about the state liquor stores and not grocery, per se...
Brian Lutz
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Re: Washington state liquor stores on auction block

Post by Brian Lutz »

I know of at least one effort underway to get the ballot initiative to privatize liquor sales overturned in the courts on a technicality (which is a slightly nicer way of saying "it'll be overturned if the government doesn't like it",) so they may not be getting rid of those just yet...
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Re: Washington state liquor stores on auction block

Post by scotty13 »

This post is informational for those who may be interested in bidding on individual liqour stores or a system wide bid for all liquor stores currently owned and opearted by the state of Washington.

There is a provision in I-1183 (the intiative passed by the voters in Washington forcing the privatization of Liqor sales) that the owners of these businesses or any holder of a Spirits Retail License must pay to the state of Washington, 17% of all revenues derived from the sale of distilled spirits.

This is in addition to the 20.5% sales tax on liquor and your other licenses and state B and O taxes. Please figure this in when considering your bid on one or all of these stores.
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Re: Washington state liquor stores on auction block

Post by Brian Lutz »

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... uor22.html

It sounds like QFC also negotiated a clause into at least some of their store leases prohibiting privately-owned liquor stores in the same shopping centers where their stores were located, which has left some bidders unable to obtain leases for the former state stores.
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