"package store"

[Peter A. McGraw]

--On Fri, Sep 1, 2000 Lynne Murphy wrote:

>> I don't think a store that only sold wine could be called a 'liquor
>> store'--since it's not prototypical 'liquor'.

..and Larry Horn answered:
>
> Agreed, but I've never come across such a store.  There are, as noted
> above, stores called "wine stores" that sell hard liquor too; it's as
> much a social distinction as one driven by inventory.

Yeah, but that's because you live in CT.  In the Portland (OR) Yellow
Pages, you'd come across roughly 47 stores (not counting those with more
than one location) that sold wine but nothing higher in alcohol content,
since the latter is confined by law to state liquor stores.

The 47 listings include some upscale grocery stores and other places such
as Pastaworks, but also establishments with names like Pepis Wine Shop and
Portland Wine Merchants.  So  at least some of them meet the definition of
"existing to sell wine," not liquor, and the distinction, while it may have
social baggage, is driven by inventory.

(0n the other hand, what do I know?  After all, until just a short time ago
I was under the delusion that I lived on the West Coast!  :))

Peter Mc.
(from OR, and thus obviously outside the "package store" region)

****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu