Let Oregon liquor agents sell wine and beer, too

Published 4:00 am Thursday, December 9, 2004

It’s tit-for-tat time at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Responding to a pilot program that has allowed liquor outlets to open in several supermarkets, including Ray’s in Bend, a number of the state’s liquor-store agents have asked for permission to start selling beer and wine along with their booze. We suspect that the request is a symbolic gesture, but the state ought to let them do it anyway.

We doubt liquor agents would make much money selling beer and wine, of course. One of the many problems with the state’s retail system is that shopping for booze is inconvenient, liquor stores being relatively few and far between. Why the heck would anyone drive to an inconvenient location to buy beer or wine when they could just pop down to the nearest supermarket or convenience store? Convenience, in fact, is one of the reasons the store-within-a-store pilot program is such a good idea. Without it, Bend would still lack a west-side liquor store.

Nevertheless, if liquor agents want to dedicate some of their shelf space to beer and wine, they should be given the chance. Why? Because doing so would knock one more brick from the silly philosophical wall the state has erected between distilled spirits and other alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is alcohol is alcohol, whether it’s distilled, fermented or conjured from a magician’s hat.

The antediluvian argument that the state needs to protect adult Oregonians from themselves by establishing its own liquor monopoly – even as independent stores are permitted to sell beer and wine – is bunk. In a handful of grocery stores across the state right now, beer, wine and liquor are sold under the same roof. And you know what? The different species of alcoholic beverage don’t roll off their shelves at night and fight each other, and the rest of us haven’t become noticeably more inebriated. And if it can work in a handful of stores, presumably it can work everywhere, even if the state monopoly evaporated entirely.

So if liquor agents want to start selling beer and wine, we say let ’em. By doing so, they’ll only hasten the day when the system responsible for the existence of their own stores crumbles.