Starting Friday, the new world of privatized liquor will sprinkle private spirits retailers across Capitol Hill. But not every new shelf is stocked and change is in the air. Be ready for sticker shock, at least in the beginning, most say. But also be ready for some cool new opportunities like another local distillery’s start of over the counter sales. We’ve cobbled together a (mostly?) complete roster of the new players, new hours and new etc. of the post-1183 Capitol Hill, below.
First, let’s celebrate a milestone most will agree is purely cool. Sun Liquor Distillery can begin over the counter sales on Friday — and is ready to roll. You can score their local vodka and gin starting at 11a Friday — the E Pike location will start its new lunch hours that day, too. Sun joins Oola with a combined retail and distillery operation on the Hill. In March, we marked another 1183 milestone for Oola — the start of self-distribution.
We first documented the coming wave of spirits retailers on the Hill back in March. Since, more big grocery stores and drugstores have joined the club as well as the privateers taking over the rights to the state shops. You’ll find some tight spaces inside the “big” chain stores. The QFC Broadway Market liquor area, shown her, has been shoehorned into a walled-off area of the store.
The 12th and Pine shop — re-dubbed Northwest Liquor & Wine — is ready to go with its new owner and should be open for business on Friday.
The Broadway state store rights had to be re-auctioned after the winning bidder backed out. Last week, a re-auction of rights to certain state store locations included the Broadway store re-selling for $365,000 — up from the $255,000 and change it went for online. The winning bid went to a buyer with a Surrey, B.C. address with a listed name of “Salbinder Cadri.” Our attempts to contact the bidder have so far been unsuccessful but it appears he might also be known in the Portland business community. We’re working on it. The owners of the Broadway property have said they are also looking at potentially more lucrative business proposals to fill the space.
Below is a roster of the Capitol Hill stores jumping on the booze bandwagon. We’ve included hours of planned spirits retailing when available with the caveat that we’ve encountered a fair amount of confusion from some of the stores about the logistics of it all.
Capitol Hill Area’s Post-1183 Spirits Retailer Roster (*no liquor inventory as of 6/1)
- — 6:00AM until 2:00AM
- — 6:00AM until 2:00AM
- — 6:00AM until 2:00AM
- * — 8:00AM until 10:00PM
- — 8:00AM until 10:00PM
- — 10:00 AM until Midnight
- *
- (12th Ave)
- (re-opens June 2nd)
- *
- (inventory status unknown)
- (inventory status unknown)
- – 58 E Lynn (inventory status unknown)
- — (inventory status unknown)
- — (inventory status unknown)
Last time I checked, $23 for a fifth of Grey Goose is a pretty sweet deal. Thanks, Safeway!
Still cheaper than what it costs today at WSLCB.
Spirits Sales Tax (SST): This tax is based on the selling price of spirits in their original package.
Spirits sales tax rate paid by the general public: 20.5%
Spirits Liter Tax (SLT): This tax is based on the volume of the spirits being sold in the original package.
Spirits liter tax rate paid by the general public: $3.7708 per liter
Is the 20% tax + $3.77/liter fee on included in these prices?
When the taxes assessed at the cash register are levied on those advertised liquor prices only one of them is actually cheaper than the prices currently offered by the WSLCB. The Grey Goose is $30.75 after tax, a slight drop in price from the $33 it retails for in state stores. The rest go up or stay roughly the same. Not a whole lot to cheer about.
The QFC ad has similar prices and states tax not included. So it’s about $30 for the grey goose after taxes. The DOR website has a spreadsheet to calculate the final price. Still cheaper than the listed $33 at the State stores.
We can cheer for access, normal hours and increased funding for the state. Not quite as exciting as lower prices, but an improvement.
…Along with decreased selection and higher prices overall. People are going to be shocked when their $22.99 bottle of Tanqueray (on sale mind you) rings up at $31.
Also, consider that these are just the advertised Club prices aka sale prices, which could mean that all the stuff not listed is not “on sale” at roughly the same cost as now. I guess we will see more tomorrow. Also, expect bar prices to go up a bit too for the hard stuff. Boo all around.
I’m so excited that I get to pay higher prices even though I voted against this! :>|
Pricing looks way better already!
I’m so excited that I get to see the Sounder’s play at Century Link Field even though I voted against the stadium. Welcome to democracy.
I’m looking forward to buying the Kirkland brand liquor, which I currently don’t have the option of buying.
At safeway on john I saw a note – which seems to have been left there accidentally by the stocking staff that says ‘We apologize, but because of washington state liquor laws we cannot sell liquor from 10 PM to 8 AM.’
WTF?
I agree with Moot, CHiller, now shut the fuck up. We’ve heard WAY too much of your bitching and bellyaching about how the price is going UP. Did you have a job in a liquor store and you’re pissed off because you had to go find a real job? If so, sorry you lost your job, but WAH WAH, the last thing this state needed was a bunch of bitchy, inefficient sales clerks suckling at the State’s teat. The State had ZERO business in the liquor business and you have zero business bitching about them getting out.
the hell they can’t. they can legally sell it from midnight until 2 a.m.
Safeway may have policies in place, however.
hey smarter than you, chill out. for the time being, prices are going up and selection is thinning out. i don’t understand how people aren’t allowed to bitch about it, but i guess that’s why you’re smarter than me…
I don’t care if prices go up. Yes, it would be nice if they go down, but that’s not why I voted for it (nor, I suspect, a lot of other people). The state should’ve never been in that business. I’m sorry people lost their jobs, but a retail clerk just isn’t a specialized enough skill to warrant a WA State pension and benefits.
So all you whiners with the “I told you prices would go up”, just STFU. Some of us didn’t vote for it based on expecting lower prices.
The Kirkland Signature vodka is distilled in the same region of France using the same methods and water as Grey Goose. If you like that sort of thing….
And at the other end of the quality spectrum, don’t forget Trader Joe’s vodka, rum, and tequila. :-)
Stop shopping at these awful chain holes like Safeway and QFC. I expect thoughtless behavior from people in Marysville or Maple Valley, but not my neighbors on Capitol Hill.
It boggles my mind that people are excited to give money to some out-of-state millionaires to donate more money to Republicans to fight against women’s rights, gay marriage, social justice, etc.
How bout Costco? Cuz, they’re like, you know… IN-state millionaires.
These pretzels are making me thirsty…
This should really help with the recent crime waves Seattle has been noticing! Yey liquor!
Stop bitching about how and where people choose to spend their money. Not everyone wants to or can afford to shop at whatever hippy-dippy BS co-op you think is morally superior. Get over yourself.
Slog today (June 1) says average prices on 12 brands they looked at are more expensive than state stores, once the tax is figured in, and more expensive at QFC in particular:
“On average, the price tags alone for the dozen liquors were 13 percent less at QFC and 18 percent less at Safeway than the state stores. But, after factoring in the sales and excise taxes, liquors are—again, the average of these dozen products—12 percent more expensive at QFC and 6 percent more at Safeway than at the state stores.”
12 percent isn’t a small raise. Now I wish I’d bought more liquor before the state stores closed. Oh well, I’ve been meaning to cut down on my drinking. I’d already stopped going out to bars as it was too pricey, cheaper to drink at home. Now, not so much. The Slog story breaks down the prices further.
More from Slog:
“In the final tally (including taxes), the state-run liquor store had the best price for 7 out of the 12 products. Conversely, Safeway had four cheaper products and QFC had one cheaper product. On average, though, a bottle at Safeway now costs $1.57 more and and QFC $3.98 more than state stores.
So don’t let those pre-tax prices fool you. QFC provides helpful signs to mitigate your sticker shock, but Safeway makes no mention in any signage that I could see. But remember, you can still save money on certain brands—you’ll save more than $4 on Bacardi at Safeway today, even after taxes, than you would have paid at the state’s store yesterday. It’s just very difficult to figure out where you’ll find savings, and where you’ll find added costs.
By the way: My impression is that the fears many opponents of privatization had about a lack of a diverse selection at grocery stores are, on the first day, completely, unequivocally true.”
I agree. I saw a very nice selection yesterday, including several very nice brands of rum I have never seen in the State stores.
The fact that QFC’s prices on booze are higher than Safeway’s doesn’t really surprise anybody does it?
The bottle I bought yesterday cost a whopping 28c more at Safeway than it did at State stores. I think I’m OK with that. Lower prices isn’t why I voted for it anyway.
If you voted to approve this privatization (I did not), you have absolutely no justification for now complaining about higher prices, or lack of product diversity. You asked for it, so live with it.
well, I’m bummed because I have to pay more in many cases, have less selection AND less convenience. I just visited the Broadway Market QFC liquor aisle and it’s teensy. It’s a 15 min walk for me to get there, so 12th Ave store (which presumably has better selection?) is a real haul (uphill!). But I guess what the backers of 1183 really want is for me to get in my car and drive to Costco for a Kirkland brand Jug-o-Vodka. Sigh! I wasn’t a huge fan of the state stores, and certainly life will go on, but I’m not sure the way this went down was the best for anybody but the large companies backing the initiative.
It’s been in effect for 2 days. It could be just a BIT early for the market forces to have had any impact, don’t you think? When big retailers start doing their own direct-buys, the distributors will see their fat margins squeezed for once. Prices will come down, just not immediately. Meanwhile– go to Safeway, they’re cheaper than QFC.
Really surprised at the ugliness here. There’s no need to say “shut the fuck” up. Maybe you could be more polite about it. Yes, the measure was passed, but you can simply say sorry, you lost, and not be so mean about it. If people are unhappy they have the right to complain. Certainly I was unhappy to find out my liquor is now more expensive (it’s tricky, it depends on what you buy; some brands aren’t more expensive). Well, I was thinking of cutting down, this makes it easier.
BTW…at the QFC on Bway tonight (in Bway Mkt) a woman chased a couple out of the liquor dept because the woman in the couple didn’t have her ID on her. The man was going to make the purchase, not her. But the QFC employee insisted that if they didn’t both have ID they couldn’t buy booze. I think that was over reacting, but you might want to make sure you have yr IDs on you, even if yr not the purchaser.
I bought the first bottle of booze at the Safeway on 15th (that’s my picture from the register above) at 6:07AM on June 1st.