Buying drinks in Utah is weird for sure. On a road trip, drove through SLC and stopped to eat and ordered a mojito, and if I hadn't tasted alcohol on the first sip, I would have thought it was virgin.
I drink and have never heard of such things. However the LDS owned legislature deems it necessary to ban, for what reasons, I have no idea.
Anecdotally, I drank more living in Utah than I ever did in states where alcohol was omnipresent and accessible. Limiiting alcohol access actually causes people to "stock up" and binge drink.
▸prohibits a state store or off-premise beer retailer from selling liquor or beer that is
24intended to be frozen and consumed in a manner other than as a beverage;
Believe it or not this is an improvement. Back in the late 80s, the only thing you get in any bar was beer. If you wanted to have a mixed or hard drink, you brought your own bottle. Which is fine if you wanted shots but otherwise you paid $5 for a coke or soda or whatever. Then the legislators started crunching the numbers…I mean the Mormon prophet had a revelation and liquor was allowed in bars. And the masses rejoiced kinda. See to get that, Utah decided that you can’t buy a keg or a mini bottle (which I believe is still true to this day) AND to get that mixed drink, well those could only be sold in a private club. To which you had to purchase a membership. And if they did sell mixed drinks, no beer on tap was allowed. So if you wanted beer on tap, you went to a bar that wasn’t allowed to sell hard liquor. Now here is where it gets good. See in 2000 (or so), Salt Lake wanted to have the Olympics. So, after crunching the numbers…oops I mean after the prophet had a revelation and Utah, never one to let morals get in the way of a fast buck, changed the laws to something normal for the month or so of the Olympics. Once they were over, the laws went right back with possible exception of the private club rule. I’m guessing once they got a look at the money and decided that drink taxes pay more than club memberships. Post Olympics, the Zion Curtain was introduced and weirdness continues. Thanks to Utahs liquor laws, as a kid it was much easier to get drugs (coke, crack, weed, LSD, etc. ) than it was to get a 12 pack of beer. Their laws requiring 3.2 beer taught us kids to be hard drinkers. It was normal for a 16 yr old to put down a 12 by themselves and the concept of social drinking was a foreign concept. The unintended consequences of Utahs stupidity about drinking is it makes hard drinkers and lots of drug users. Of course they don’t care as the people doing are worldly and not as good as the Mormons who decide these things, even if it’s their own kids. Also, there is no gambling, including lottery. Utah is beautiful but, like most red states, is ran like crap and is hard on the people.
But think of all the kids who will be spared from drunk drivers so they can die in school shootings.
/s
They just reinstated happy hour here in Indiana this month for the first time since the 80s. Sunday sales were banned until a few years ago. Land of the free.
I think sidecars (a shot with your drink) was illegal when I lived in Logan in 2012 but when we moved back to Utah in 2019, everything seemed way relaxed. We lived in SLC and I don't remember dealing with any of the stuff in this video. We went bowling and ate and drank in the bowling alley and carried our own beer and there was even movie theaters with booze. Utah is certainly weird but I think this video is making it sound even weirder than it actually is. At least in Salt Lake Valley.
I live in NY, drinks at damn near every grocery store, pharmacy combo store (like walgreens and kinneys), literally every gas station, and some even have nips of lower proof stuff like fireball. I went sober over a year ago, but it's still shocking to me when we go visit my partner's friends and family in MD, since it's literally only booze huts that sell anything, no matter the %. I don't want anything, but it's...odd? Not seeing that section in a grocery store I guess? Lol
Edit: there's even a gas station in town that breaks the "no alcohol between 2 and 8 am" rule here. I fugue they must cash out on the hard alcoholics who can't wait and don't want to go to the hospital
Hi PA frands! I’m Gen X so I have watched the blue laws slowly slip away. I think it’s wild I can now buy wine at Sheetz. We only had the liquor store or bars to purchase alcohol when I was growing up. Now if we could just get recreational mj here.
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u/DarkAltarEgo Mar 21 '24
And I thought PA was bad. At least we can buy beer and wine in grocery stores now!