Charlotte

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When The Laws Of The State Meet The Laws Of Economics

July 19, 2021 by 1 Comment

One of the by-products of the COVID-19 pandemic is that people are consuming more alcohol. Both the medical community and the popular press have noted that. In North Carolina, you can buy beer and wine at many outlets including grocery stores. However, if you want to buy hard alcohol or spirits, you must go to the ABC store run by the local alcohol beverage control board. North Carolina is what is referred to as a “control state”.

The Charlotte Observer notes:

Mecklenburg County ABC Board data shows March sales to businesses have already sold 65% of the bottles sold last year and retails sales have more than doubled over last years sales, the board and N.C. Spirits Association said in a news release Friday.

Last year during pandemic shutdowns, ABC stores saw a nearly 30% jump in sales compared to 2019 as more people stocked up at home, the Observer previously reported. But as more restaurants and bars have reopened, demand is up for spirits.

Recent reports coming out of Charlotte, the state’s largest city, indicate people were indeed buying a lot of liquor at the ABC stores and now it is impacting the supply available for bars and restaurants. It is also impacting what is available on the shelves in ABC stores themselves.

Supply and demand is the first law of economics. In this case there isn’t enough supply to meet the demand. In an uncontrolled system, prices would rise as a result of the shortage. However, prices in North Carolina are set by the state. The advantage to the consumer is that that bottle of Maker’s Mark is the same price in Murphy as it is in Manteo.

Individuals in Charlotte seeking their Tito’s Vodka or a specific brand of tequila have an easy option. They can just cross the border into South Carolina where liquor sales are not state run.

But Drew Podrebarac, the owner of Southern Spirits, said across the border in South Carolina, currently, they’re fully stocked.

“Definitely in North Carolina, just because the way they do their liquor, I know they’ve had tons of problems but that’s part of the reason that they come to South Carolina to buy the liquor,” said Podrebarac…

“Right now, North Carolina currently has about 500-700 available liquors in stock. We currently have at Southern Spirits almost 6,000 different liquors, so when people actually say, ‘Wow, there’s a lot more available,’ people just kept coming and started telling their friends and it definitely boosted sales and customer numbers,” said Podrebarac. 

However, North Carolina bars and restaurants don’t have that option as their license requires them to buy only from the ABC stores. Moreover, they have to pay a $2-3 premium per bottle compared to what the consumer pays in the store.

By interfering with the law of supply and demand, the laws of the state of North Carolina have created a situation where businesses who struggled to survive the pandemic cannot obtain the raw material for one of their most profitable items – cocktails. By contrast, South Carolina doesn’t have a supply shortage and does have many more choices. If there was ever an argument about privatizing the ABC System, this is it.

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Back From Charlotte

February 23, 2013 by 4 Comments

I spent the last two days in Charlotte attending a regional meeting of my company which explains the light blogging. Anytime I take a trip out of town I try to scope out the local gun shops. This is especially true now in light of the run on guns since Obama was reelected and the Newtown shootings.

On the way down I stopped at the Shooter’s Express in Belmont. I had bought my first AR lower there many years ago. I did see a few ARs and AKs in stock plus a decent assortment of handguns. The used rack was a bit sparse. One of the clerks told me that before the rush they had six used racks and now they have one.

I was looking for some reloading supplies and the folks at Shooter’s Express suggested Little Hardware which I checked out this afternoon once the meeting ended. What a cool place! It was like the old fashioned hardware store on steroids with a little bit of everything yet better organized. The clerk that helped me told me that they had sold out of most of their reloading supplies. I was looking for powder to reload 5.56×45. Specifically, I was looking for Hodgdon CFE223. I didn’t have any luck there. The clerk pulled out a reloading manual and we looked to see if anything would be appropriate. As luck would have it, I found a 1 lb. canister of IMR 8028 XBR which has a great reputation for accurate loads. I also came home with a 500 round box of  148 grain HBWC for my .38 Special.

On my way out of town I dropped in at Lawman’s Supply off Clanton Road. Having been there a couple of years ago, I knew they often had a number of police department trade-in pistols. They didn’t have anything I really wanted. However, if you are in the market for either a Glock 21 (.45 ACP) or a Springfield XD-9, they had a number available in the $350-360 price range. I’d guess they had about 10 of each.

Finally, I went all yuppie and visited Ikea for the first time ever. It was actually a rather cool place even if I felt like the only conservative in the store. I was looking for the Ordning cutlery canister to use as a bushcraft/hobo stove. I figured for $2.99 how could I lose. The only problem is that I kept finding other stuff that caught my eye like a LED lamp for my desk, some new towels, and some small glasses that I thought would be great for a bourbon tasting.

I’ll be back to regular blogging tomorrow. I’m just glad to be back home in the mountains.

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Keeping Democrats Drunk In Charlotte

June 5, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Democratic National Convention is going to be in Charlotte, North Carolina just after Labor Day.

North Carolina has state-run ABC Stores. For those living in more enlightened climes, ABC Stores are our liquor stores and not something with teacher supplies. Though, on second thought, a case could be made for that near the end of a long school year.

The ABC Stores are closed on Sundays and five holidays including Labor Day. Bars and restaurants in Charlotte are afraid they might run out of booze with all the Democrats in town so a bi-partisan group of Mecklenburg County legislators are seeking an exception.

A bipartisan coalition of Mecklenburg County legislators introduced a bill to the N.C. House making sure visitors to the Democratic National Convention can guzzle with gusto after getting off the plane.

The bill would keep the Alcoholic Beverage Control stores in Mecklenburg County open on Labor Day Monday for this year only.

The holiday exception means local stores wouldn’t be closed for two days in a row – so restaurants, hotels and caterers could stock up on spirits ahead of thousands of convention arrivals. The DNC runs Sept. 4-6.

“Whatever we can do to make the process smooth for members of the national media and members of the national political community visiting Charlotte,” said Rep. Bill Brawley, a Republican from Matthews and one of the sponsors of the bill. “I think good manners require us to do that.”

 Keeping Democrats drunk is something I think we can all agree on.

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Keyword: NRA

May 27, 2010 by

Lexicalist.com is a website that analyzes word usage on the Internet and then breaks it down by demographics. The three demographics analyzed are age, gender, and geography.

Even two weeks after the NRA Annual Meeting, North Carolina is still buzzing about the NRA coming to Charlotte as seen by this map from Lexicalist.com.


Demographics of “nra” on May 26, 2010 (from Lexicalist.com).

I used the keyword “NRA” to generate this map. As you can see, people are still buzzing more about the NRA today than they were a month ago. Lexicalist.com estimates that it is up 128%.

Go here for the full breakdown.

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NRA convention underscores anti-gun camp’s irrelevancy

May 26, 2010 by
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First Impressions of the NRA Annual Meeting

May 21, 2010 by

We attended the NRA Annual Meeting this past weekend in Charlotte. When the Complementary Spouse asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said I wanted her to go with me to Charlotte. Being the good woman that she is, she agreed.
Even though this was my first NRA show, I had an idea of what to expect in the Charlotte Convention Center since I had attended the 1996 SHOT Show in Dallas. I was working for a knife company then and helped to work their booth.
My first impression is that the NRA show was smaller but friendlier. There were less “booth babes” than at a SHOT Show which given the family-oriented composition of the crowd was probably a smart thing. The vendors seemed more willing to take the time to explain their products than I expected. That was nice feature of the show.
We were met in Charlotte by the Complementary Spouse’s brother Larry and two of his sons. The boys were more interested in the Bushmaster ACR, the FN SCAR, and the Barrett Model 82A1 than anything else. Larry and I were more interested in the higher end 1911’s, the exquisite wood of the Dakota Arms rifles, and other stuff of that ilk. Blame Call of Duty Modern Warfare and other video games!
The Complementary Spouse is not of the Gun Culture. Her father did collect guns and she has shot skeet with her late dad many years ago. The one thing that really stood out for her is how polite everyone was. You saw Mom and Pop Kettle, bikers, servicemen, cops, hippies, old people, young kids, etc. People didn’t jostle in line, they held doors for one another, they said “excuse me” and “please”, and they were just nice to one another. When you have more than 70,000 people in one place this is a rare thing. Robert Heinlein was right – an armed society is a polite society – even when you aren’t allowed to carry your arms like in Charlotte.