Vegetable-Language45 t1_jchc77d wrote
Reply to comment by earpain2 in New Hampshire House Votes 210 to 160 to Fully Repeal Marijuana Prohibition by GivenAllTheFucksSry
Fuck the liquor commission and their monopoly.
Why would there be dispensaries at the border when literally every other surrounding state is legal?
Fuck it, buy an eighth and you get a free Roman Candle!
gortexcondom t1_jchlrms wrote
We have the lowest cost of liquor in the country. Why is that a bad thing?
JohnnyRebe1 t1_jchx4vt wrote
It’s not that much cheaper and most have to drive waaaaay farther to 1 of the state run stores. MA is closer to me than any of the state stores by a long way.
gortexcondom t1_jchxmb6 wrote
Where do you live? I legit can think of anywhere that is more than a 10 minute drive to a liquor store on the southern border. They are all over the place.
It is also significantly cheaper than mass. I would know because I went to school at umass Amherst but lived in Manchester NH. Every time I would go home I would buy tons of liquor for friends because some handles like captain Morgan’s was sometimes $10 cheaper. That’s like a 33% discount. This was in like 2010 though.
Tullyswimmer t1_jcigqpe wrote
I was gonna say, I've found it much harder to buy liquor in MA than NH. There's more stores if you just want like, Smirnoff and Jack, but if you're looking for more craft stuff, higher end stuff, or interesting/unique stuff, the state stores in NH have a WAY better selection than most of the private stores in MA, and are much easier to get to.
Plus, the sticker price in MA might be only a little more but then you get sales tax slapped on top of it.
ANewMachine615 t1_jchjv3f wrote
Lower taxes, same reason people buy liquor here.
Dux_Ignobilis t1_jchzj71 wrote
The stores produce a lot of tax money for the state and they generally pay decent as well. At least they did when I worked at one. Aside from that, since they have all the buying power collectively for the state, they actually get discounts from merchants since they can buy so much product in bulk. This is why the liquor stores in NH are cheaper than everywhere else. So not only do they provide a lot of tax revenue, they provide jobs and lower cost product. This would normally be the benefit of competing commercial companies but in this case the solution works just as well.
Tullyswimmer t1_jcih7jz wrote
I think the state run stores start at $12-something an hour, but the benefits are ridiculous and all employees, even part time ones, get them.
Yeah, there's a lot of ways that a state monopoly on liquor sales could go wrong, but in NH it works well, and generates a shitload of revenue for the state which is not really tax revenue.
I would 100% be OK with NH doing a similar thing with dispensaries because that's just another revenue stream for the state that keeps our taxes from going up as fast.
Dux_Ignobilis t1_jcihoc9 wrote
Damn. When I worked at a store 10 years ago that was the going rate for the sales/laborers. Was hoping it woulda increased in ten years but guess not.
I for one would definitely be up for the state doing it to increase tax revenue, but I don't want to wait til fed government makes it legal for them to do it either.
Tullyswimmer t1_jcijcb1 wrote
Seems my info is out of date.
I can't find the exact numbers on the state website (and I'm sure it's there) but it looks like the going rate is at least $16 an hour for a clerk II plus they get part-time benefits. I think it's part of one of the state employee unions. So it's really not a bad gig. A lot of the older clerks I've talked to are there because it's something to do and I think they get healthcare even as part time.
Dux_Ignobilis t1_jcik6k9 wrote
Yeah that makes more sense. That's what I would have expected the rate to be. If I recall correctly, Sundays you get 1.5x and Holidays are also 1.5x and if both coincide you get 2x pay as well. So it's definitely a decent job overall if you get the hours.
Tullyswimmer t1_jcikmuw wrote
Yeah. And even as someone who generally dislikes the government running shit and having a monopoly on it... I really can't complain about the way this state has set up liquor laws. It works well, the employees are treated well and have good benefits, and a lot of it is far cheaper than it is other places. And you can VERY easily find a specific bottle of something on the website and know exactly which store to go to if you want to purchase it. That is massively underrated if you're looking for something specific.
Dux_Ignobilis t1_jcimx1f wrote
Yeah it's always a situation of "it depends" and in this case it's been run efficiently so I support the government running it as well. An insider tip: depending on the store (the stores on 93 will sometimes do this - bigger stores more capability), you can request certain bottles that aren't in stock so long as you buy a couple bottles of it. So if there's like a rare whiskey or wine they don't have in stock throughout the state, some stores will order a case just to put on the shelf if they know a customer requested it and will buy a bottle or two.
Tullyswimmer t1_jck0sri wrote
The other factor here is that it brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state, which means hundreds of millions of dollars that's not collected through taxes, and my property taxes are already painful enough.
Dux_Ignobilis t1_jcl4ih3 wrote
Absolutely. At the time, the store I worked at would bring in around $20m/yr for the state all while having the revenue to pay employees well and extra for divestiture and investing into the liquor commission.
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