What is a package store?

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
03/25/2016 at 22:28 • Filed to: None

Apparently down here in Virginia, the liquor store is called a “package store”. At first I thought these places were some sort of post office/ups store. I thought it odd they sold beer and wine also, but there was also a big gun store nearby too so I figure “it’s a South thing”. Anyways, I go to ask someone about it and they tell me this is just what they call liquor stores down here! Y’all are weird! I imagine this is probably pretty common and I’ve certainly seen odder things done with liquor sales but this just confused me haha.

Don’t get me wrong, I like it down here though! Only a few days into my temporary new place of living and I’m definitely enjoying the early summer. Traffic is a bit terrible in some places but now I know to avoid the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel permanently and I’ll be good. My commute is an easy ten minutes so I’m happy.

DISCUSSION (26)

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:30

In some states, all liquor stores are state owned and run.

For Sweden > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:31

Male sexual services

jvirgs drives a Subaru > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:31

That’s news to me. I’ve never heard that term before. But true liquor stores in VA are called ABC stores.

Funktheduck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:33

I've never not known them as package stores

Milky > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:36

Party store is a muck better and more accurate name.

Doug DeMuro > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:39

When I lived in the south I heard this was a vestige of prohibition; back then you’d run a “package store” like a mail/shipping store but in back you sold alcohol, and the name stuck even after prohibition ended. Absolutely no idea if this is true but it seemed reasonable.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:41

I’ve never seen a liquor store here that wasn’t a state-run ABC store.

Birddog > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:42

Bars in Illinois used to have “Package Goods” signs if they sold Beer and Liquor for carry out.

I wonder what the origins in that are.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:43

Package store makes me think of PA and the hurdles you have to go through to buy beer. In VA its just the ABC store to buy your spirits, wine and beer at your grocery style store of choice.

ranwhenparked > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:47

They seem to call them that in western Massachusetts, too. I believe it comes from selling packaged (eg, bottled/canned) alcohol, as opposed to a bar or restaurant that serves alcohol for consumption on site.

scoob > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:57

According to Wikipedia, if you believe it, and it only mentions two southern states:

In Alabama , Connecticut , Georgia , Massachusetts , and Rhode Island , liquor stores are also technically known as package stores , locally in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and areas bordering these states you may hear the term Pack or Packie used as well, because purchased liquor must be packaged in sealed bottles or other containers when it is taken from the store.

Chuckles > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 22:57

I encountered this same thing when I moved to North Carolina. I was told they are called package stores because they have to wrap your purchase in a package (a brown bag) so that you weren’t walking down the street with a visible bottle of liquor. I was told that this is still true. Next time you are there, try telling them that you don’t need a bag and see what happens.

Rainbow > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 23:04

Suwanee Package is one of the oldest businesses in my neighborhood. Along with the adult video/toy store. And this is a suburban, family-oriented neighborhood. Not sure how those do such great business.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/25/2016 at 23:31

Y’all are weird!

Oh it gets better. Go ask one of your southern friends what the plural of y’all is.

ttyymmnn > Phyrxes once again has a wagon!
03/25/2016 at 23:44

PA liquor laws are bizarre. I went back for a funeral a few months ago, and had to buy a 12 pack at a restaurant. It was a standard sit-down restaurant, but they had refrigerated cases at the front for carry out. I talked to an employee at a grocery store about it, and he said that there are rumors that beer and wine sales will be coming to grocery stores. And then there was the time I bought beer in a grocery in Ohio, and the checker said that I had to drag the beer across the scanner myself since she wasn’t 21.

sdwarf36 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/26/2016 at 00:20

Yup- I can confirm in Ct they are all called package stores. As in “ I have to hit the packie before we go to the party.” Beer/.wine can be bought in grocery stores-liquor (and beer+wine)just at packies.

Stephen the Canuck > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/26/2016 at 06:59

In Ontario you get beer at the Beer Store (amazingly original) and liquor and smaller amounts of beer at the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). We’re just starting to get beer (up to 6 packs I believe it is) at some grocery stores.

That's gonna leave a mark! > ttyymmnn
03/26/2016 at 07:51

Grew up in PA. Go back on rare occasions. Still hard to believe they have this system. Obviously some people have a financial interest in keeping it going.

Scimitar7 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/26/2016 at 07:54

I’m FROM Virginia, and I still don’t get it. Now they’re all “officially” called VABC stores, or, as a former coworker called them: “awkward alphabet stores”

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > jvirgs drives a Subaru
03/26/2016 at 08:14

What does that stand for? There was a large building that looked like a post office (Not the one pictured) and it was at the Norfolk NEX. It said "Package Store" so I was really confused until I asked about it. ABC is an official term or slang of some sort?

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Doug DeMuro
03/26/2016 at 08:15

Ahh that would make sense.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Chuckles
03/26/2016 at 08:16

That's when the prohibition swat team pops out and violently throws brown bags at me

jvirgs drives a Subaru > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/26/2016 at 09:42

Alcoholic Beverage Control. We here in VA have state run liquor stores for everything else that’s not beer and wine. They even have their own cops. If you thought speeding was bad, don’t cross an ABC cop....

jvirgs drives a Subaru > John Norris (AngryDrifter)
03/26/2016 at 09:43

All y’all

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > ttyymmnn
03/26/2016 at 10:57

That rumor has been floating around for years especially with the creative interpretations of the current PA rules that some stores/restaurants have taken to increase sales. Think of a Wegman’s or Sheetz getting their cafe to count as a restaurant so they can sell.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > jvirgs drives a Subaru
03/26/2016 at 12:40

Ahem. That was an assignment for Wrong_Wheel_Drive_NOT.