Liquor Stores-State-Eagle

End of loooonnngggg day. Leftovers heated in hotel room microwave and a gin and tonic were calling our name at 7:30pm. Had the leftovers in the hotel room fridge. Had no gin or tonic. A quick google of liquor sales in Eagle informed us that like our current home state of Oregon, liquor can only be purchased in state run stores in Idaho. (As the good people of Washington state now know, there are advantages to the state run system. See This n That. ;-)). Made our way to this Eagle liquor store (one of two in the city) with about ten minutes to spare before their 8pm weekday close time.
Spacious store. Nice selection of gin and other adult beverages. Delightful, friendly young woman behind the counter who being only 19 couldn’t offer us any advice on whether the local distillery gin that was on the shelf with others was good. In Idaho you can sell liquor when you’re 19 although you can’t buy it until you’re 21. Go figure. We bought a favorite gin, price was a couple of dollars less in Idaho than we’d pay in Oregon, a bottle of tonic and we were good to go. We’ll be back when bourbon season rolls around.
THIS N THAT:
1) PARKING: Street parking right in front of store was easy to find. I think there is also a lot in back.
2) ACCESSIBILITY: Level in at door and throughout.
3) HOURS: Closed Sundays I think. (Although there are other liquor stores in the area that are open Sundays.) Mon — Thu 10a — 8p. Fri — Sat 10a — 9p.
4) POLITICAL RAMBLING — STATE RUN ADVANTAGE (?): I am a life long, card carrying Capitalist and on the face of things it might have seemed like a good idea to me too, were I still a WA state registered voter as I once was, to get the State out of the liquor sales business. A couple of years ago when the good people of Washington state passed measure 1138 to privatize liquor sales, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to observe since we keep talking about putting a similar measure on Oregon’s ballot.
Alas, what has happened is that liquor prices have gone up, in some cases WAY up, in Washington state post 1138. Folks drive to Oregon, across the border from Vancouver into Portland for example, to buy booze since it is lower priced here at our State run stores. As illustration, Portland area liquor sales have gone up dramatically since WA passed 1138. Another example is a liquor store that opened up in Kootenai County Idaho, right across the border from Spokane Washington. Since 1138 passed in Washington state, that Kootenai County Idaho liquor store has had an astronomical increase in liquor sales, thanks to folks making the less than 30 minute drive from Spokane to get there, and is now among the highest grossing liquor stores in the state of Idaho based on a recent revenue report.
Politics can be enough to make you drink, don’t you think? For now I’m thinking if Oregon did float a ballot measure, like Washington’s 1138, to privatize liquor sales while I’m I still voting here I’d toast to «NO» looking at what’s happened to our neighbors to the north.