Lapchik's '25 GT

[Frump]

Years ago the State of Iowa owned and operated all the liquer stores. Later you could purchase beer at the grocery store too, then later wine too. The hours and day of the week were controlled - no beer sales on Sunday, then later no beer sales except noon to 6 pm on Sunday, then noon to 10 pm on Sunday, then I think 24 hours. Now the state just owns a distribubution warehosue for spirits. Everything except beer or wine is supposed to go thorugh the state distribution warehouse unless the vendor has a "special license". Apparently some stuff still gets in through using other nefarious methods like UPS labeled as hot sauce and the like.

If the warehouse in Ankeny were to ever get hit by a tornado or burn down there will be a lot of angry zombie like drunks walking around or driving out of state. There may be some exceptions for locally made liquer, but everyone still needs a state control ribbon on their caps as far as I know, not sure how the local distilleries go about doing that. Again beer and wine have exceptions. Its complicated, but basically its setup so the state always collects alcohol taxes in addition to sales taxes and they don't worry so much about the "sins of alcohol" anymore.