Houston’s Liquors

Walked in with my wife for some snacks while staying down the road at flying flags campground for a couple nights. I immediately make eye contact with the man behind the counter and ask if they accept cards here. He says yea.
Proceeding in, inventory on displays look old and dusty, as if stuff doesn’t move very often. I grab a large bag of chips and ask how much two of his candy bars are.
I settle on two candy bars and the bag of chips which comes to almost six dollars. I hand him the card, and annoyed, he says, «you don’t have cash?». I said, «no, that’s why I asked you if you took card when I came in». He says, «well they charge me .75¢ when I charge a card, so I can’t do it for this little.».
I paused, said «oh», put everything back, walked towards my wife who was selecting her own stuff for her own purchase; and basically exclaimed to her how I didn’t think we should burden this store with transaction fees. So, we both left not purchasing anything.
In the end, I’m just glad I wasn’t such a financial burden to the store. Oh wait, here’s an idea; maybe the store should have a sign showing a minimum card purchase requirement or stated usage fee? Or maybe this store which already has overpriced inventory should include the average cost of card transactions to be reflected in it’s inventory’s pricing. What a concept. What a turnoff.

We were looking for a nearby liquor store that we could walk to from the campground we were staying at down the road. We walked up Avenue of the Flags for a couple of blocks entering another liquor store that looked even more shady than this one. That’s a whole ‘nuther review.
Like many urban liquor stores this one is plastered with posters or beer, wine and liquor ads all attempting to grab your attention and sway your upcoming purchase. And like all of these, I couldn’t list even one name off any of the posters that littered the windows of this dark store. The inside was about the same. Candy, chips and jerky that has been sitting around for months collecting dust.
I went inside and the guy behind the counter didn’t even look up to see who I was. I breezed by him and said «Hi» as I wandered into the back where most of the alcohol beverages are located. I think he uttered a word, but I couldn’t recognize the language if it was one. Okay, I’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt here … he *is* working on St. Patrick’s Day and who’d rather be drinking instead?
So, I go up to the cold case and begin looking for some inexpensive champagne for the wife. Nothing is priced, so I turn around and ask the guy how much the Korbel cost. $ 14? Wow, welcome to Buellton! Well, the other place didn’t even carry Korbel and «Duck» was out of the question, so I reluctantly grabbed the bottle from the shelf.
I proceeded to the other side of the counter, when someone else walks in and nabs the clerks attention. I’m trying to read the wine labels and look for the prices on the wines. Of the few wines that are even priced, they are all located on the back of the bottle, so I need to turn each one around to see them. The guy is busy with this other customer and I reach over into the no-​man zone (12-​inches behind the end corner of the checkout counter) to turn a few bottles around. Now the clerk becomes a little jumpy (maybe from a previous encounter) and focuses his attention on me. I told him that I was looking for the prices at which point he raises his hand at me and says he’ll help me. I wait. He finally comes over, starts turning bottles around and rattling off random prices. Wow. Welcome to Buellton! All of them were at least 50% more than regular retail prices. He didn’t seem to have any clue about the wines, the quality, the taste, OR the price! Not impressed with his assistance, I grabbed a mid-​range bottle of a wine that I was familiar with, headed to the counter and checked out. Tried to get a few smiles from the guy, but alas no luck. Kinda puts a damper on the day when you come across moody, depressed, ignorant, unhappy, grumpy people like this. Good thing that feeling only lasts until I place the period on the end of this sentence.

If you are in Buellton, done with a day of wine tasting and looking for another adult beverage and snacks? This is a great spot.
Walking distance from Pea Soup Best Western as well.