Washington State Liquor Store

Glad that Initiative 1183 passed. Not having govt run liquor stores is a good thing. Prices are marked up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too high here. When I lived in Kentucky, I could pick up gin for as low as $ 7. Daddy likes his gin cheap sometimes. Here I’m paying as much as three times that for the same sized bottle.
Sad.
Good selection of booze, though. Can’t wait for the liquor superstores to pop up around here.

Did I just step into some kind of Candid Camera episode?
The set up: Going in to pick up some delicious St. Germaine liquor for my weekend guests, have my daughter with me which feels really inappropriate but hey, such is life.
Her: «What’s this place for, Mommy?»
Me: «Grown up drinks»
The store has about 15 people milling around, looking at the shelves and the ‘POP’ displays with packaged liquor and swag. I find what I’m looking for– WTF? Retail price 29.99– Tax 8.89 — SERIOUSLY? I’m just glad they have it, as this store seems to be shy on the more ‘upscale’ products and specialty stuff.
I pick one of two cashier lines, seemingly the shorter.
Guy in front of me is about 6’5″, maybe 150lbs, slicked back hair with some weird braid in the side, jumping from foot to food, no product in his hands, hmmm…
Turns and says ‘can you save my place’ ‘uh, okay’ runs around the store while the other two customers in front of us finish their purchases, comes back right as I’m walking to pay, so of course I let him back in, that’s when I notice the silver chain with just the business end of a normal dinner sized silver spoon hanging from his neck.
Nice. I live in such a classy area.

This one is especially great because it has a guard
(armed/​unarmed = unclear), something I never see at other liquor stores I frequent (U Village, old Wallingford location)…
…somehow, it makes me feel safer with my booze purchase under a watchful eye.
Love the location at the Beach! (Rainier Beach).

When I turned 21, this is the place I wanted to come to purchase my own alcohol. The store is on the 7 bus line, among others, and tucked in a corner of the Ranier Beach Safeway.
In line ahead of me one dude pulled wads of big bills from his jeans pocket to buy Silver Patron. Another man ahead of me paid only in coins for a mini Bacardi bottle. Then I held up the line for like 6 minutes because another guy had the cashier redeem his winning scratch ticket, worth $ 1. It was actually a big production to get one of those things cashed. Anyway, all of this may be the standard operating procedure of liquor stores in general, but I would like to think «only in Ranier Beach…» and not have my first liquor store experience tainted.