Wal-Mart Donates $40,000 to Liquor Initiative

Wal-Mart donated $40,000 to I-1100 today. I-1100 is the liquor privatization initiative that would remove the wall of separation between distibutors and retailers and allow bulk rates for retailers. (The other liquor privatization initiative, I-1105 keeps those regulations in place.)

Costco has already donated nearly $800,000 to the I-1100.

I went to the Walmart in Marysville, WA. I inquired why the lines were so big answer, 50 People just got moved to another store and until someone passes a drug test we are not going to get more people. What happens when there is only dope heads living in a town that Walmart is in? It closes down and small merchants get to revitalize the area again. I love Walmarts conservative values, sell more booze.
Posted by B1164596 over 2 years Ago
Josh, please highlight this tomorrow as "Comment of the Week". Seriously, this is epic.
Posted by Joe Szilagyi over 2 years Ago
Still another reason to oppose I-1100. I'll darken the "NO" oval for I-1105 too, but I-1100's "NO" will be much more emphatic.
Posted by N in Seattle over 2 years Ago
Agreed. Vote against both of these corporate astroturf proposals.
Posted by MVH over 2 years Ago
yes. vote against evil giants like costco and wal-mart so our humble government can continue to monopolize liquor in an antiquated throw back to prohibition era fears. Awesome. Meanwhile, if I would like to buy a bottle of premium bourbon, which I've tried, the liquor stores get to laugh at me (literally, they laughed) and said they never get the "top shelf" stuff. Great! Keep selling that pint sized glass bottle shit that people only drink with a paper sack. And as an added bonus, since I couldn't buy it in a store here, I purchased a $110 bottle online. Now I've broken state law, and the state lost out on the sales tax for my bottle. What is the logic of voting no on these?? Do you just hate wal-mart that much? It could allow for high-end sellers to move into places like Capitol Hill and Downtown to sell premium liquor -- you know, small shops like at Melrose Market. Wal-mart is NOT plunking down a new store in either of those areas. It will open the market to competition, drive down the prices, allow small business to fill in the gaps and get the state out of liquor sales altogether. What's wrong with any of that?
Posted by buyaclue over 2 years Ago
My logic is that a State Store system would be the ideal way to sell cannabis when it is legalized. Moreover, without such an infrastructure in place, it would be so much tougher to control/limit cannabis sales that the argument against legalization might prevail. Which is not to say that I believe marijuana to be more dangerous or more of a "gateway drug" than ethanol. The system needs to be updated and improved, for instance to facilitate the type of special-order you wish. Though I still don't think one could get F.W. Weller 107 here, even under a special-order provision ... we're <em>waaay</em> north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Posted by N in Seattle over 2 years Ago
If California legalizes marijuana in November and Eric Holder is willing to look the other way, then we'll see how legalization works without having to be funneled through a government-owned supply and distribution system. I suspect it will work out just fine (just like the quasi-legal market for cannabis in the Netherlands). This talk of the need for such government-owned pot-selling outlets is just a red herring to avoid the real issues at hand. The state has better things to do than to sell booze, and booze can be sold better without state-run stores.
Posted by Cocktails42 over 2 years Ago
Most of the familiar names were against state-run stores not so far back: http://www.publicola.net/2010/04/20/booze-news/ But they don't want to let it go because they like the taxes it brings. It's a silly argument, OK when Costco back it, but not OK when WalMart does. The state should get out of the biz, and get their taxes elsewhere.
Posted by Barleywine over 2 years Ago

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