{"id":12374,"date":"2020-03-23T18:40:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T22:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12374"},"modified":"2020-03-23T18:40:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T22:40:08","slug":"whats-more-important-the-liquor-monopoly-or-a-thousand-bartenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=12374","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s More Important? The Liquor Monopoly or a Thousand Bartenders?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battered by shutdowns of dine-in service, restaurants across Maryland and beyond are taking a severe beating.\u00a0 As a measure of modest compensation, Governor Larry Hogan has allowed restaurants and bars to engage in something unprecedented: takeout and delivery service of alcohol.\u00a0 That partly applies in MoCo too, but there is a holdup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county liquor monopoly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monopoly has approved takeout and delivery of beer and wine<\/a> but not of cocktails and other spirits-related products.\u00a0 Meanwhile, California<\/a>, New York<\/a>, Florida<\/a>, Colorado<\/a>, Vermont<\/a>, Iowa<\/a> and the District of Columbia<\/a> allow takeout and\/or delivery of cocktails, although they often require them to be offered in sealed containers and only with food.\u00a0 Governor Hogan\u2019s executive order<\/a> allows takeout and delivery of spirits too but that is subject to additional restrictions imposed by local jurisdictions.\u00a0 The City of Baltimore has chosen to allow takeout and delivery of cocktails<\/a>.\u00a0 MoCo has not.\u00a0 Its grant of takeout and delivery authority<\/a> explicitly says, \u201cThis permission does not include liquor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nepenthe Brewing Company in Baltimore advertises takeout cocktails.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liquor monopoly enjoys a retail monopoly on spirits sales and jealously protects it.\u00a0 For example, after the General Assembly passed a law three years ago allowing the monopoly to contract with private stores to sell spirits, the monopoly simply refused to enter into any such contracts<\/a>.\u00a0 Loosening its retail spirits sales monopoly might damage its profits, which are the only reason it continues to exist.\u00a0 (Profits are no problem at the moment as the monopoly\u2019s business is booming<\/a> while folks are stocking up.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue matters because it affects the employment of a key category of personnel in the restaurant industry: bartenders.\u00a0 Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that MoCo and Frederick establishments together employed 1,410 bartenders in 2017<\/a>, so at least 1,000 of them work in MoCo owing to the comparative size of the counties.\u00a0 The two counties employed an additional 2,680 people classified as \u201cdining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers.\u201d\u00a0 When takeout and delivery is restricted to beer and wine, bartenders are not needed because anyone can handle bottles and cans.\u00a0 But when spirits beverages are allowed, bartenders are necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clavel Mezcaleria \u2013 Taqueria in Baltimore has an online menu of pre-bottled cocktails.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One restaurant owner who contacted me put MoCo\u2019s cocktail\nban in economic terms.  \u201cMaryland allows\nit.  Montgomery County does not.  Baltimore can sell a margarita to go.  We cannot. \nThat\u2019s my point. The DLC [liquor monopoly] restricts us again.  If they allowed it I could keep some of my\nstaff employed instead of on the unemployment line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s more important? \nThe continued employment of a thousand MoCo bartenders?  Or the liquor monopoly\u2019s long-time retail\nspirits monopoly?  County officials, you\ndecide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Battered by shutdowns of dine-in service, restaurants across Maryland and beyond are taking a severe beating.\u00a0 As a measure of modest compensation, Governor Larry Hogan has allowed restaurants and bars to engage in something unprecedented: takeout and delivery service of alcohol.\u00a0 That partly applies in MoCo too, but there is a holdup. … Continue reading What\u2019s More Important? The Liquor Monopoly or a Thousand Bartenders?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,1449],"tags":[1545,1439,1724],"class_list":["post-12374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-department-of-liquor-control","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-department-of-liquor-control","tag-liquor-monopoly"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3dA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12374"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12381,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12374\/revisions\/12381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}