"package store"

Bob Haas highbob at MINDSPRING.COM
Thu Aug 31 18:57:59 UTC 2000


That's certainly the case in North Carolina.  And not all towns have either
one.  When I was growing up in Boone, NC, the entire county (Watauga) was
dry save for the town of Blowing Rock, which was a summer resort and/or home
for many well-to-do folks from colder climes.  The only ABC store in the
county was in Blowing Rock, as were the only "fully stocked" package stores,
as well as the county's only bars.

That changed in 1986 when Boone voted in alcohol, which meant that package
stores could sell beer and wine, as could grocery stores and supermarkets,
as could restaurants so long as 51 percent of their revenue came from sales
other than alcohol, and the local ABC store would be the only place in town
where one could buy liquor.  To buy a "liquor drink," as my friends and I
only half-mockingly refer to them, one has to travel to a restaurant in
Blowing Rock.  It's a little complicated, but if you were raised Southern
Baptist, or one of the various denominations of Bible Belt Christianity in
the region, you understand it.  You may not like it, but you understand it.
I've never looked into it, but I assume that there are still plenty of dry
townships throughout the state.

> From: Jessie Emerson <jessie at SIRSI.COM>
> Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 13:45:05 -0500
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "package store"
>
> I could be wrong, but I believe that "package store" in the South carries
> with it the connotation of an establishment (like a gas station) that sells
> beer and maybe wine, but not liquor.  You go to a "liquor store" or "state
> store" or "ABC store" to buy hard liquor.
>
> Jessie Emerson



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