Shortly after the publication of his book, The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, Arlington-based author Garrett Peck wrote an opinion article for The Washington Post that concluded, “The private sector is much more efficient at running businesses than is the government. It's time for the state [of Virginia] to get out of the business of selling spirits.”
He was referring to Governor Bob McDonnell’s campaign promise to privatize Virginia’s government-owned and –operated monopoly on the wholesale and retail sales of liquor. Virginia residents can buy beer or wine in privately owned supermarkets or convenience stores, but to purchase bourbon or tequila, they must go to state-owned ABC stores.
In an interview on July 24 with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner, Peck described the shopping experience in ABC stores as dreary, especially when compared to the alternative Northern Virginians have by crossing the Potomac into the District of Columbia.
Reduced Quantity and Quality
Arlington County, he said, “has about 200,000 people. We have six liquor stores -- six ABC stores for all 200,000 of us. Hence a great number of us go into the District of Columbia to buy liquor.”
D.C. has “500 liquor stores,” he noted, pausing for emphasis: “Five zero zero.”
The larger number engenders competition and higher quality of service, he added.
Of those 500 stores, “they’re all still thriving and most of them are small businesses. They’re neighborhood stores. They have to know their markets better, they have to know who their customers are, and they have better choice and lower prices,” he explained.
They also have more variety of products. “If you want something esoteric, you go to the District, because you’re not going to find it at the ABC store.”
In contrast to the high level of choice and service in Washington, Virginia consumers are not so much ill-treated as diffidently served.
“Most of the clerks are just there to ring up your purchase,” Peck said. “Most of them are not very knowledgeable about what they’re actually selling. That’s been my experience.”
Coalitions For and Against
With the likelihood that Governor McDonnell will call a special session of the General Assembly this year to address his privatization proposals, Peck foresees “some interesting coalitions building for and against this thing.”
The coalitions will not necessarily “follow the usual urban vs. rural” divisions often seen in Virginia politics, he said. He expects “Baptist preachers to come out against it, because they don’t want anyone drinking at all and therefore state control is better,” and some public safety groups may also oppose it “because traditionally they don’t want more liquor stores.”
Most citizens, Peck fears, will be apathetic toward the change.
“Alcohol is no longer a sin anymore in American society like it once was,” a topic Peck addresses in his book. “Most people don’t know anymore why we have ABC stores. No one can answer that question, except for a few of us.”
So most Virginians “just accept it as this is the way it is. We have poor selection and ‘eh!’," consumers shrug their shoulders with indifference.
Economic Benefits of Selling ABC Stores
For Governor McDonnell to persuade the public and lawmakers to support his proposals, Peck said, he must emphasize the economic benefits of privatization.
Supporters of change have “to show us taxpayers how much money the state is actually going to generate out of this, both from the sales of the stores and also from licensing and recurring revenues [and] sales taxes increases,” he argued.
They must also “show that if we have more liquor stores now in the state,” that will create “hundreds, if not thousands,” of new jobs
That would be “a net benefit to the state,” he continued, especially if you calculate the increased “income taxes that come from those additional workers.”
Peck remains optimistic. Noting that privatization of the ABC system “has been studied several times before,” he nonetheless believes Governor McDonnell possesses “enough of the political backbone this time and the [political] capital [needed] to actually push it through” this year.
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