Since the beginning of privatized liquor sales in Washington last June—for the first time since Prohibition—the question on everyone’s lips has been: Where are the cheaper prices we were promised?
Remember stories like this? “The owners of Shanahan’s Pub in Vancouver say they fully support 1183, because it will mean they can buy liquor at cheaper prices, and pass those savings on to their customers,” reported KOIN TV in 2011.
Despite public approval for Initiative 1183 in the early days, there were those who disliked it from the beginning. “Like a lot of craft distillers, Kent Fleischmann, co-owner of Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane, will vote against I-1183. He worries that prices for Dry Fly’s vodka and gin could be driven much higher by retailer and distributor markups, plus new fees imposed by the initiative. He figures a 750-milliliter bottle of gin and vodka could rise from $29.95 to $40, a daunting prospect,” reported the Seattle Times.
Unfortunately for Fleischmann (and the liquor buyers of Washington) his prediction turned out to be correct. A 750-milliliter bottle of Dry Fly gin is now regularly priced $34.99 at one upper-scale Seattle grocery store, or $44.99 with tax.
Still, another question remains: Do certain stores, large or small, chain or independent, sell liquor at better prices than others?
To find out, we compared the cheapest fifth of vodka, rum, tequila, gin, and whiskey at grocery and big box stores (for simplicity’s sake, we did not distinguish between Scotch, bourbon, etc., and instead just included the cheapest whiskey we could find—usually Canadian) at various outlets. Secondly, we conducted a price comparison of a fifth of Absolut, Bacardi, Jose Cuervo, Seagram’s, and Jack Daniel’s.
A chart of bargain-basement pricing
For the lowest liquor prices, the brands range from well-known, bargain-basement vodkas such as Platinum ($10.99 at Metropolitan Market) and Burnett’s ($9.99 at Trader Joe’s and $8.99 at BevMo), to Trader Joe’s brands that we had never heard of before, such as Rebel Yell Whiskey ($11.99).
Total Wine & More boasts a brand called American Pride that beats the prices everywhere else in tequila ($6.99), gin ($4.99), and vodka ($4.99). The cheapest whiskey we found was Monarch Canadian ($7.49) at BevMo; the cheapest rum, Montego Bay ($5.49) at Trader Joe’s.
At Metropolitan Market, as savvy shoppers might expect, prices don’t go very low at all. The cheapest rum brand was Bacardi ($11.99) and the cheapest gin, Beefeater ($19.99).
A chart of famous names in liquor
We have included the lowest price for every variety of liquor to help readers gauge which stores have, overall, the least expensive brands. We are absolutely not recommending these as quality liquors. While the brand name American Pride might suggest a certain downhome dignity, its price of $4.99 for a fifth of vodka does not instill great confidence in brand quality.
Here in the neighborhood, we collected prices from several Capitol Hill grocery stores as well as one independent Capitol Hill liquor store — plus field trips to two of the new superstores. So far as the grocery stores go, the prices only differ by a few dollars. The QFC “regular” prices would make this store one of the more expensive places, but with a QFC Advantage card their prices closely match the other grocery stores. The prices listed in the chart for Safeway are those available with a Safeway Club Card.
The one independent liquor store we checked out, Northwest Liquor & Wine on 12th Avenue, did have slightly more expensive prices than the grocery stores for the brand name liquors we compared. However, their cheapest liquors were quite competitive with the other stores, and they even had the cheapest gin (McCormick’s $6.99) out of all the Capitol Hill stores, tying with Safeway (Essex $6.99), and beaten only by rock-bottom American Pride.
Last week I purchased a bottle of Kettle One at this very location. It was about $38. I believe I paid about $27 with tax prior to June. I did purchase the same bottle in Safeway at about $28.50. I was okay with paying $1.50 for the added convenience at Safeway (one stop shop) but will not return to the 12/Pine location again as the difference in price is too great.
You all need to remember that the Liquor Control Board changed every rule that 1183 didn’t touch, including the limit on WHO could be a distributor.
This state had no business being in liquor retailing or distribution and they have no right to be compensated to get them OUT of the business they had no right to own. This is a cross we all must bear for awhile until we can get a little more change in place.
My advice to you folks is to shop at Costco if you want to save serious money.
@No kidding! is right. The WLCB limited by rule all distributorship rights to a very small (2? 3?) group of wholesalers, who are the economic bottleneck (no pun intended) that artificially inflates the prices. If the wholesale part of the distribution chain were more open to competition, we would see a significant drop in prices. I believe the WLCB was persuaded by the distributors’ fears that they would not be able to compete with Walmart, Kroger, or other giant chains to preserve their monopolistic prices as in the past, and so they received bureaucratic protections not anticipated by the initiative. Plus it maintained the flow of liquor taxes at a higher level.
I still shop at Northwest Liquor & Wine because they actually carry things that used to be available at most state-run liquor stores. I have yet to find ANYWHERE else in the greater Seattle region where you can buy a bottle of Chamucos (tequila). Not at Costco, BevMo, Total Wine, QFC, Safeway, Trader Joe’s, nor Metropolitan Market (which probably should have been included in this because they have a great selection of local liquors). I’m willing to support some higher prices for some items if they continue to keep the selection they have.
Poorer selection at higher prices. Good job, Washington voters.
Love to say told you so. Should have left well alone.
I was going to say the same thing but didn’t want to seem too snarky. But, yes, it was a mistake to vote for this change, and all those who did are paying the price, literally…as well as all those who voted no.
Yep. I voted no, mostly because a lot of the smaller distilleries, wineries, etc had voiced their concerns about higher prices. There were a lot of people in the industry who saw this coming. Anyone who’s surprised now really didn’t pay attention to the details of the law.
I voted “yes”, and I’m still glad I did. I don’t care if liquor isn’t yet cheaper than it used to be when the state sold it. The state Should not have been in that business to begin with.
Besides–wasn’t it known that for the first couple of years, prices would not go down? Didnt the initiative front- load some of the transition costs into the first two years? Something like that.
I purchased exactly one bottle of Gin since the transition and after paying the obscene sales tax went directly to a Google search for delivery from out of state.
I now only buy from a well-established chain in southern California. It takes two days to get here but it comes directly to my door and is about 40% less expensive on everything.
It may not be very PC but I don’t drive (working toward a balanced carbon footprint) and the State of Washington State will get my money elsewhere.
And what is this retailer’s name?
Look at it this way, never been a better time to be a pot smoker.
Central Co-Op members, your member discount can be applied toward liquor. Also, for those who enjoy Oola, they periodically have $10 off sales at the distillery. I shop strategically.
I would be interested to see the changes graphed over time rather than the anecdotal before and after comparison. I have noticed the prices softening a little as things settle in but it is hard to gauge. This same experiment should be run every couple of months so that we can see if the trend is going towards our favor or not.
Shop at Costco…the company that brought us higher prices by buying a law that would explicitly increase their profits? Um, never. “State shouldn’t have been in the liquor business”…ok..uh…but it was better for the CONSUMER. God forbid we don’t bow down to corporations.
You’re pissed at the wrong people. If the Liquor Control Board hadn’t continued the minimal competition for incumbent distributors, their fat margins would be open to competition. Shopping at the big-box providers is one of the best ways to put the squeeze on those greedy distributors, and help bring the retailer’s prices down.
I think we’d all agree that food is more important than liquor, right?
So by your reasoning, why not put the State in charge retailing food, too? Or gasoline too, for example? Why not let the State sell everything? What makes liquor different and special?
And why does the State need to pay people who run cash registers at State-run liquor stores State benefit packages and pensions? You realize you’re paying for that too, right?
Can we get larger charts? Those above are too small and difficult to see.