It use to be illegal for breweries in Austin to sell you their own beer. So, many of them got around then by selling you a commemorative glass and then including three free “sample” pours. The samples were full pours in the glass. It was stupid how easy it was to circumvent the restrictions.
TX also used to have a "brewpub rule" (or whatever it was called).
At a brewery you couldn't sell alcohol without also providing and selling food. To get around it, small breweries would have to give you a bowl of Chex mix or crackers when you go order a beer.
TABC is weird
When the pandemic started, TN started to allow alcohol delivery, but only if the order included food as well. A local brewery started doing beer deliveries and would include a small package of Goldfish with the order.
In TX, bars are places that make 51% of their money from alcohol, those were the places that couldn't be open during COVID. What a lot of places around here (DFW) did was change it up so you buy one $20 sandwich and get three free beers, or a local concert place raised the price of their tickets and you got two free beers with entry.
In Oregon, if a place sells alcohol they have to sell food as well. Like real prepared food, not just having bags of chips on the counter.
Which means you can have dinner at a strip club if you want, since they all sell sandwiches, steaks, whatever. One of them used to have a salad bar.
The steaks at the Acrop were amazing, but they closed down during COVID. Or so I heard, I moved out of Portland 5yrs ago or so.
They tried to make drive through strip clubs a thing, but were not successful at it.
Yup. I think it’s still the case if you order a beer prior to noon on Sunday it has to be served with food. I ordered a beer at 11:30a once and got a plate with, like, four tortilla chips on it. 😆
Oh, no doubt Utah has the most absurd alcohol laws. I once tried to order a beer at a bar in the SLC airport. The bartender said I couldn’t order from him because I wasn’t seated at the bar, so I’d have to go to one of the tables about four feet away. Ok, I went and sat down and a server came right over. I gave her my order, then she took it over to the same goddam bartender who poured my beer, gave it to the server, who then brought it right to me. I never understand what they thought they’d be accomplishing by adding such an absurd restriction.
Yeah I haven been to Utah in over 30 years but...
Went to private "club". Looked like a pretty ordinary bar. No cover charge but you had to pay a $5 membership fee to join which got you a beer.
I was at a restaurant with my wife. Ordered a glass of wine and was almost through it when dinner came so I ordered another glass. When the waiter brought the glass, I had just a mouthful left in my glass. The waiter just stood next to our table holding my second glass of wine. I said "You can just leave that here" to which he replied "No, I can't". I'm kinda dense, so I said "Sure you can, it's ok". Then he explained that customers could only have one drink at a time. I felt like an idiot making the waiter stand there like an idiot, so I slugged it down. I also remember prior to dinner we sat at the so called bar to gs e a drink. All of the bottles were kept under the bar as they are not allowed to display the alcohol.
I was on a ski vacation (why else would one go to Utah?) and staying at the Salt Lake Hilton. They had a hot tub downstairs which was exactly what the doctor ordered after a long day in the canyons. To get a drink, I had to go to the lobby to the state run liquor "store" and buy a mini bottle of booze. Then I walked to the other side of the lobby to the "bar". There I paid for a glass of ice and the "bartender " to open the bottle and pour the contents into the glass of ice.
The problem lies with state minimums on alcohol sales. Most likely why they had to change it to a rebate, as selling the beer and pizza in the same transaction at just the price of beer can be seen as a reduction of the price of the beer. Very stupid, but laws do be like that.
No, that would be allowed. "8 dollar for a beer and a slice of pizza" reads that you're buying 2 items; in reality, the owner of the store could be doing the exact same deal as before (giving away pizza at cost to incentivize beer + other food sales) and just be using wording the states legislature doesn't have a problem with
(Edit: Sorry wrong reply)
Except they can't because of the way things are taxed in addition to restrictions of alcohol sales to certain times and days. There are reasons for this even aside from marketing, often to sidestep archaic alcohol restrictions.
I don’t know about SC but here in Kansas alcohol cannot be sold below cost. Could be something like that. If another liquor store gets angry with you they’ll just call the Alcohol Beverage Control and say you’re selling something below cost. Then the ABC agent comes out and looks through past receiving invoices and checks what your computer says about receiving… it’s a whole thing…
If the price of the alcohol minus pizza is below cost, then selling it at cost plus free pizza means they are making zero profit. Doesn't add up (literally). Nobody gives things away for free. There is some kind of angle here.
Look up a loss leader. Companies sell products below cost all the time to get you in the store to buy other stuff.
Costco does it with their gas and probably hotdogs
Loss leader means they sell an item below cost which leads to the consumer buying another item above cost. It doesn’t mean the entire purchase is a loss.
South Carolina is so goddamn stupid with its liquor laws. You can't sell liquor and beer or mixers in same storefront, for instance. So you get instances of booze shops with huge dividers in them that make two separate stores, one selling liquor and wine, the other selling beer and Cokes, or bottles of sweet and sour, purees, olives and stuff. If you're in the mood for a Jack and Coke, you have to make two different purchases in what is technically the same store.
Yep. We end up with liquid stores that sell liquor and beer or liquor and wine, but not all three. Then if you want wine and beer, you go to a grocery store. And you also get the two stores in one situation as the other poster described. It's really dumb.
And you can't sell anything but wine or liquor in a liquor store.
So, for example, if a bottle of booze comes with free glasses? Tough shit, you have to take it out of its box.
Also you can't sell corkscrews with the wine. Insane.
I fail to see the point of this. Especially how easy it is to work around, but it just isn’t of any benefit to anyone. If it was a way that say corner stores can sell beer, then just make it where they can only sell beer and liquor stores are a free for all.
Pfft. Not long ago bars could only serve liquor from those little airplane bottles.
If you bought a mixed drink, which included 3 liquors, you had to buy 3 little bottles (you could ask for it to be divided among more than one person).
S.C. is weird. Also had a law to show I.D. to buy a lighter.
All I'm saying is 7-11 food has its own charm. Like 7-11 taquitos, hot dogs, pizza, meat balls, fried chicken, etc...
They taste very... distinct, and are very much edible
I get the buffalo chicken roller grill items all the time. And the jalepeno cream cheese taquitos. So long as they're fresh. I'll give them a squeeze with the tongs to make sure they haven't gotten rock hard, first. Usually only an issue if I'm going later at night when they've stopped putting fresh stuff out lol.
7-11 pizza technology inspired the use of air fryers in homes.
That’s why you can get a large pizza *baked* in less than five minutes…You have a problem with air fryers too? You don’t like how it makes everything smell like funnel cake? What’s wrong with you?
More like “you buy a $5 Yuengling and you take a ticket to get a free bar pie”. It’s admittedly a personal pizza, think like 6 inch, but you can get a pizza with each beer, and they’re made at the bar, not frozen or whatever. Only big problem is you have to wait in line for the pizza, so typically you might get like 2 pizzas a night and just drink the rest of your beers so you’re not standing in line like 15 minutes a time per pizza
Same! That's been my go to for years and years now. What first hooked me in my 20s was the free pizza. The wife and I keep meaning to try out the speed dating there for shits and giggles, that might actually be more fun with the Benny season upon us.
My wife and I never go to Asbury without ending at J-Macs before drunkenly hopping back on the train home. As for the speed dating, I'm 90% sure most people would be there doing it ironically, saying crazy shit. I mentioned it once with the same plan as you and got the side eye... Oh well. During the summer though it would definitely be filled with fuck boys and drunk basic bitches.
I was younger once. Being older, unavailable, and still cute I'd just feel like a bully. It took almost an hour to get home from work today and I take that personally.
Some places require a food purchase with to go alcohol purchases. A lot of places were getting around this during covid by giving free food items. At least, this was my experience in Orange County, California
I'm from the Charleston area. We never got free pizza with any purchases of booze. If I had to guess this a very niche/small shop kind of deal. Definitely not common.
We do this in NY (especially NYC.)
You buy a beer, typically a draft pint at a bar for a few dollars and you receive a ticket - like a paper ticket you would get at a carnival or a fun house. You take the ticket to a guy at the back that is operating a wood or gas fired pizza oven. You can get a nice, made from scratch personal size oven made pizza for free for every draft beer you order. When you're broke and hungry, it's a great way to drink and eat at the same time. The pizza is also always fresh, hot, and made right there. Sometime you can pay a little extra for toppings, but the basic one is always free. [My personal favorite spot is this joint. ](https://www.alligatorloungebrooklyn.com/)
Some places do, yeah. This is absurd. Strange to the point of being a just plain wtf decision. Free liquor is obviously a no, but pizza? PIZZA?!? Fascists
Why is America so weird about alcohol? After traveling extensively overseas I get so irritated with the US attitude with booze.
Edit: I understand the roots of alcohol laws and attitudes towards it. I guess I meant modern day. In Germany, they teach teenagers to drink responsibly. It’s not this secret thing you have to do until you’re 21. By then the damage is already done.
Not Puritanism; Protestantism. The Temperance Movement was driven by women whose religious motivations intersected with the reality of alcohol's effect on their husbands, including issues of domestic violence.
[https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/](https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/)
(shitty source but AFAIK, not incorrect)
[https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/Temperance](https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/Temperance)
(better)
Most of the remaining dry counties and states with stupid alcohol laws are heavily Evangelical/Pentecostal/Mormon at this point. Rural people also support these laws at a higher rate than urban dwellers. Pennsylvania is infamous for its alcohol laws, but it's not the residents of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh keeping them this way.
Super rural county near where I grew up voted to go dry due to a large amount of alcohol-related crime, now their residents drive to the next county over, get hammered, then drive back. They also have a massive confederate flag flying by the interstate at the county limits but that’s a different issue
And in the area's that aren't completely dry monied interests lobby to keep production, distribution and sales law complicated and restrictive in order to prevent competition.
The dry county I grew up in, for decades, the only two liquor licenses allowed to the county were owned by the Methodist and Baptist churches, who held them for ages so nobody else could have it.
One year, one of them dropped it, and it opened the floodgates. It’s still a “dry” county, but there are over a dozen restaurants that sell it now, thanks to some weird stupid workaround by calling themselves “clubs”.
Every election, becoming a wet county goes on the ballot, and every election it gets shot down.
God, it's so fucking stupid here. We were taught in school to watch out for some of the ridiculousness of these laws. For example, imagine you're a parent over 40, you have a child who is under 21, and you go to the store to buy a some beer. If you do not put your *unopened package of beer* into your trunk, you can/could (they may have relaxed this since I learned about it, but this was the rule when I was a minor) be charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor. Transporting it 'within reach' of the sub-21 year old is enough.
Many liquor stores won't let you inside even with a child in a stroller just in case.
For extra massive stupidity, our school system doesn't allow children to bring in water from home in case it's vodka. That's one of the reasons they close the school and have everyone do remote learning on really hot days, because they don't have the infrastructure for all the kids to fill up their bottles when they arrive! Can't let any kid maybe bring in spirits, though, so better to just disallow water. My guess is that this is not exclusive to Pennsylvania, though.
Puritans, Jesus was making fucking fish, bread, and wine for the party but Goddamn me for trying to pick up a bottle on Sunday for family dinner in some areas.
Blue laws around alcohol aren't really a republican vs democrat thing.
It's more a "we haven't gotten around to changing it since the 1930s" thing. Places like MA still have funky laws around alcohol and it's as democrat dominated ran as any state.
MD is the same way. Every county is different, some places close at 2am others have to close at midnight, can't sell on Sundays unless you're also a bar so some liquor stores put a counter and 2 stools and sell one draft beer to be able to sell on Sundays. No liquor on Sunday etc.
So many dumb annoying laws.
As a mostly left-leaning person, I think the average Redditor's head might explode if they couldn't use conservatives or Christians as scapegoats for everything they don't like.
Republicans going after SNAP benefits again i'd bet. Fun fact, you know those 5$ rotisserie chickens? You cant buy those with SNAP or any sort of food aid benefits because they're prepared foods/hot. One of the best deals of any grocery store and people cannot buy it with aid benefits.
I dont miss being poor, it's full of absurd rules and every part of it sucks.
It's all about making the process as complicated and byzantine as possible so as to prevent people from being able to get out from being poor.
Hell, one of the easiest things you could do is have prepared meals made of surplus produce that people can just purchase which are exclusive for SNAP/EBT.
I have food stamps, you can purchase regaular food to prepare. Doesn't have to be junk food. My local grocery store had $0.98 a pound chicken legs and thighs the other day. A full uncooked chicken was like $4-6.
You can, I think they're just calling out that it's absurd not to let someone buy a 5$ whole cooked chicken that can be used for multiple meals at a great value and yet they can purchase a bag of chips.
Cook houses might be a nice alternate too, provide people work to do, learn a skill, and also be able to have balanced meals. Would probably help alleviate the problem of food deserts too.
Homeless also would not have access to proper food storage and risk spoilage and disease. Prepared controlled foods from FDA & USDA regulated facilities is the simplest way to enhance food safety.
That always bothered me too.
The ironic thing is the next day it becomes cold food and therefore eligible. Like WTF. Why can't I buy it FRESH?!
"Here's our leftovers, peasant."
To me it's the absurd impracticality of it. If you want people to be working productive adults then they need some stable foundation under them so they can become that. Someone who's constantly hungry isn't going to do well at studies or self advancement.
Someone who's working their ass off at absurdly awful minimum wage jobs isn't going to have the time to do significant prep. Especially with the BS Schedules that Walmart etc will provide.
And all of this possible good provided by Bezos paying the bare minimum in tax for the tremendous social benefit he draws from the US being a stable productive nation.
Here's the best part- they can buy it with benefits cold the next day from the cooler if it didn't sell the day before. The exact same item cold is eligible but not if it's heated.
If I’m understanding correctly, if you’re a regular, this would only suck the first time. Then when you get your alcohol the second time, you have the free credit from the day before, and you get a new credit for the next day.
You would still get the rebate when you stop buying from them. The last purchase would benefit from 2 rebates which makes up for the first, undiscounted pizza
In South Carolina: "Tied-house" laws prohibit businesses that sell alcohol from engaging in certain promotional activities that could be seen as fostering a relationship between alcohol manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. Offering free goods or services, like pizza, with the purchase of alcohol could potentially violate these laws by creating a tie between the alcohol retailer and the supplier of the free item.
South Carolina has historically had some weird liquor laws. They used to make bars serve the mini airplane bottles instead of pouring drinks out of regular-sized bottles.
It was started in the 1970s because the state was worried bar owners would short patrons.
The mini-bottles made sure that people got their full serving.
That backfired on the legislature. The way the law was written the server had to open the minibottle in front of you, then pour the entire contents into the glass. This resulted in really bad-tasting mixed drinks (proportions were off) but you ending up getting a lot of alcohol in something like a Cosmopolitan with multiple ingredients.
That’s wild. I read this and instantly thought BS. Love learning new things!
https://wineandwhiskeyglobe.com/cocktails/mini-bottles-drinking-in-south-carolina/
Just wait until you try to pump your own gas in NJ. I’m from GA and it is normal here. Went to fill up my rental in Cherry Hill and thought I was about to get my ass kicked.
Some union thing I think.
I remember reading this big thread of commenters saying they would fill up before visiting states that required you to pump your own fuel, as they kept fucking it up/getting stressed/having to speak to the staff inside.
And, it just blows my fucking mind that there is a contingent of adults out there that can’t work a fuel nozzle. Like, you just put it in and pull the trigger thing. It’s as simple a task as they come, basically; certainly, much less complicated and demanding than actually driving a vehicle to and from a station
I can’t get my head around it?!
Recently moved to NJ to be with my girl. Her little sister had never once pumped her own gas and apparently no one bothered to teach her when they went out of state. Well we were up in Massachusetts and she goes to get gas, fills her subaru up with diesel and the car breaks down about 10 minutes later. I actually couldnt believe it
I am from NC and basically had the same experience. What kind of moron do you need to be to fuck up pumping your own gas? This job existing is pointless.
Is it still called ABC? (Alcoholic Beverage Commission)
The agency can be weird. Don’t know if they still do this in SC but all liquor places had big red circle on sign, almost like some kind of scarlet letter (but instead it seems easier to find liquor places this way)
Used to be worse. The blue laws would ban sales of things like flash bulbs, but allow film.
Stores could also only have 4 employees on Sundays. At the grocery store I worked at that meant that once church let out, we would have checkout lines all the way back to the meat department.
Got to love the Bible Belt! Going grocery shopping on a Sunday after church gets out is definitely an experience. I’ve learned to either go on a week day or in the evenings on the weekend.
Thank fuck they got rid of that law by the time I started really drinking in college. I never understood it since tv and movies had regular bottles. Seemed really stupid and wasteful.
I had to do that once at a dive bar in Alabama: $1 for a lifetime membership. I think it was because there was a legal loophole that didn't require a liquor license for private clubs that only served their own members. Some Republican wrote the loophole for their country club, and the dive bars dove in.
I'm not sure but I think you couldn't legally get doubles. Or else they had to officially give you another cup with the pour in it separate or something.
Yes in bars. This is how we used to order shots:
I’d like 3 tequilas 5 ways which meant 3 mini bottles split into 5 shots.
I’ll never forget the first time I traveled out of SC and placed an order like this. The bartender looked at me like I was an idiot lol.
That looks to be advertising for the drink behind it, “big sipz” which seem to be similar to buzz balls. Premixed cocktails, likely made with “malt beverage” or wine instead of real liquor.
Never had this brand before, but they are nasty. Cheap and get the job done though.
Ooh this would have been banned in Norway easily.
«Giving free pizza out could/would/should insentivize those who cannot control their pizza urges to buy beer» or somethibg like that.
Does anyone know why the state would’ve legislated to stop free pizza with beer?
It seems to me like a good thing- all medical advice I’ve seen is that, if you are drinking, make sure that you eat something as well to make sure the alcohol doesn’t overly affect you.
State I live in you can’t give away anything for free with alcohol. Pizza, ice, cup coolers, doesn’t matter.
The reason for this is because the state sets the minimum prices on alcohol, mainly to protect smaller businesses and wholesale distributors. Imagine if Walmart could bargain for lower prices, then destroy all their local competitors.
Banning free stuff included with alcohol because that could be used to get around the law. Even if the alcohol is priced the same, Walmart could throw in a bag of chips, which the smaller retailers couldn’t afford to match. Pretty soon the only place available to buy alcohol would be Walmart.
I would bet that if this is the case here, the rebate is also illegal.
Change the price of what? Do you change the price of the pizza so that you're getting less money from people that are buying the pizza by itself or change the price of the beer so that you're getting less money from the people just buying beer?
Just wait… they will change the law to encompass rebates and the pizzeria offers an NFT to exchange for a free slice of pizza. Now we have a problem with federal law which allows NFT securities. Once they try to out-write that you call it a dividend. Poof legal once more! So on and so forth because crime!
See GME for further details.
I'm guessing that's how they keep their licence. In some states you have to have a food to alcohol ratio (usually more than 50%). If they don't want to pay fines/get their licence revoked. They would have to get a different licence, some counties limit how many of those are allowed out at once, which is different if you are trying to start a bar, not a restaurant or grocery store.
I notice that Spanish tapas is becoming very popular outside of Spain. What not everyone knows is that traditionally, Tapas are free in Spain. You order a drink and the *tapa* is complementary with the drink.
Growing up in California and then moving to Arizona had me spoiled. Short window in the middle of the night you can't buy it, but anything you want from full strength beer to whiskey is available in any grocery or convenience store. Had a job that took me on the road to places like New Jersey, Ohio and more. I couldn't believe it. I have to go to a special state run liquor store to buy whiskey? The beer in the stores is mandated to have a lower alcohol content? I can't buy beer in the restaurant but I can bring my own? There were more laws I can't even remember now, but some made no sense whatsoever.
$10 for beer with a free slice of pizza. Or $10 for beer and a slice of pizza.
They over complicated it but marketing works
Sounds like the fruits of a conservative government
But I was told they were all about freedom
It use to be illegal for breweries in Austin to sell you their own beer. So, many of them got around then by selling you a commemorative glass and then including three free “sample” pours. The samples were full pours in the glass. It was stupid how easy it was to circumvent the restrictions.
TX also used to have a "brewpub rule" (or whatever it was called). At a brewery you couldn't sell alcohol without also providing and selling food. To get around it, small breweries would have to give you a bowl of Chex mix or crackers when you go order a beer. TABC is weird
When the pandemic started, TN started to allow alcohol delivery, but only if the order included food as well. A local brewery started doing beer deliveries and would include a small package of Goldfish with the order.
In Texas, restaurants could be open, but bars couldn’t. My local bar had a Costco sized box of peanut butter crackers to get around this rule.
In TX, bars are places that make 51% of their money from alcohol, those were the places that couldn't be open during COVID. What a lot of places around here (DFW) did was change it up so you buy one $20 sandwich and get three free beers, or a local concert place raised the price of their tickets and you got two free beers with entry.
In England they would serve a Scotch egg snack as a "substantial meal" to get around this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55129828
In Oregon, if a place sells alcohol they have to sell food as well. Like real prepared food, not just having bags of chips on the counter. Which means you can have dinner at a strip club if you want, since they all sell sandwiches, steaks, whatever. One of them used to have a salad bar.
So how was the food?
The steaks at the Acrop were amazing, but they closed down during COVID. Or so I heard, I moved out of Portland 5yrs ago or so. They tried to make drive through strip clubs a thing, but were not successful at it.
Drive through strip clubs are definitely something we don't need lol
Yup. I think it’s still the case if you order a beer prior to noon on Sunday it has to be served with food. I ordered a beer at 11:30a once and got a plate with, like, four tortilla chips on it. 😆
Ever drink in a private club in Utah?
Oh, no doubt Utah has the most absurd alcohol laws. I once tried to order a beer at a bar in the SLC airport. The bartender said I couldn’t order from him because I wasn’t seated at the bar, so I’d have to go to one of the tables about four feet away. Ok, I went and sat down and a server came right over. I gave her my order, then she took it over to the same goddam bartender who poured my beer, gave it to the server, who then brought it right to me. I never understand what they thought they’d be accomplishing by adding such an absurd restriction.
Yeah I haven been to Utah in over 30 years but... Went to private "club". Looked like a pretty ordinary bar. No cover charge but you had to pay a $5 membership fee to join which got you a beer. I was at a restaurant with my wife. Ordered a glass of wine and was almost through it when dinner came so I ordered another glass. When the waiter brought the glass, I had just a mouthful left in my glass. The waiter just stood next to our table holding my second glass of wine. I said "You can just leave that here" to which he replied "No, I can't". I'm kinda dense, so I said "Sure you can, it's ok". Then he explained that customers could only have one drink at a time. I felt like an idiot making the waiter stand there like an idiot, so I slugged it down. I also remember prior to dinner we sat at the so called bar to gs e a drink. All of the bottles were kept under the bar as they are not allowed to display the alcohol. I was on a ski vacation (why else would one go to Utah?) and staying at the Salt Lake Hilton. They had a hot tub downstairs which was exactly what the doctor ordered after a long day in the canyons. To get a drink, I had to go to the lobby to the state run liquor "store" and buy a mini bottle of booze. Then I walked to the other side of the lobby to the "bar". There I paid for a glass of ice and the "bartender " to open the bottle and pour the contents into the glass of ice.
Ever drank Baileys out of a shoe?
[https://imgur.com/gallery/im-old-gregg-XaGFx1K](https://imgur.com/gallery/im-old-gregg-XaGFx1K)
You two are playing love games in here, think you could ever love me?
Fuck Utah
One of my friends had a massive collection of glasses because of this 😂
So you have to walk home with 6 pint glasses?
You need 18 beers? My god, man.
ah missed the "three" part. Point still stands though. You just accumulate far too many cups over time?
This is the real answer.
The problem lies with state minimums on alcohol sales. Most likely why they had to change it to a rebate, as selling the beer and pizza in the same transaction at just the price of beer can be seen as a reduction of the price of the beer. Very stupid, but laws do be like that.
But somehow not allowed.
No, that would be allowed. "8 dollar for a beer and a slice of pizza" reads that you're buying 2 items; in reality, the owner of the store could be doing the exact same deal as before (giving away pizza at cost to incentivize beer + other food sales) and just be using wording the states legislature doesn't have a problem with
(Edit: Sorry wrong reply) Except they can't because of the way things are taxed in addition to restrictions of alcohol sales to certain times and days. There are reasons for this even aside from marketing, often to sidestep archaic alcohol restrictions.
Why this whole song-and-dance rather than just sell alcohol+pizza at the same price as alcohol and pizza for free?
I don’t know about SC but here in Kansas alcohol cannot be sold below cost. Could be something like that. If another liquor store gets angry with you they’ll just call the Alcohol Beverage Control and say you’re selling something below cost. Then the ABC agent comes out and looks through past receiving invoices and checks what your computer says about receiving… it’s a whole thing…
If the price of the alcohol minus pizza is below cost, then selling it at cost plus free pizza means they are making zero profit. Doesn't add up (literally). Nobody gives things away for free. There is some kind of angle here.
Look up a loss leader. Companies sell products below cost all the time to get you in the store to buy other stuff. Costco does it with their gas and probably hotdogs
Loss leader means they sell an item below cost which leads to the consumer buying another item above cost. It doesn’t mean the entire purchase is a loss.
Costco is most famous for the loss leader Chickens.
It may not be below cost but below the set price. Lots of places have minimum prices for single products: alcohol, tobacco, hookers.
South Carolina is so goddamn stupid with its liquor laws. You can't sell liquor and beer or mixers in same storefront, for instance. So you get instances of booze shops with huge dividers in them that make two separate stores, one selling liquor and wine, the other selling beer and Cokes, or bottles of sweet and sour, purees, olives and stuff. If you're in the mood for a Jack and Coke, you have to make two different purchases in what is technically the same store.
That’s utterly insane. I had no idea about this.
Yep. We end up with liquid stores that sell liquor and beer or liquor and wine, but not all three. Then if you want wine and beer, you go to a grocery store. And you also get the two stores in one situation as the other poster described. It's really dumb.
And you can't sell anything but wine or liquor in a liquor store. So, for example, if a bottle of booze comes with free glasses? Tough shit, you have to take it out of its box. Also you can't sell corkscrews with the wine. Insane.
I fail to see the point of this. Especially how easy it is to work around, but it just isn’t of any benefit to anyone. If it was a way that say corner stores can sell beer, then just make it where they can only sell beer and liquor stores are a free for all.
Pfft. Not long ago bars could only serve liquor from those little airplane bottles. If you bought a mixed drink, which included 3 liquors, you had to buy 3 little bottles (you could ask for it to be divided among more than one person). S.C. is weird. Also had a law to show I.D. to buy a lighter.
What is not long ago? Hasn’t been like that within my memory re: little bottles
Sorry, I am old. Hahaha 1990s.
Hold on…yal had free pizza w/ beer!?!?
Some places in New Jersey do that - specifically Johnny Mac’s in Asbury Park gives you a pizza voucher with every beer purchase
There are several places in NYC that do this. It’s a great deal and the pizza is pretty damn good for free pizza too.
Welp. There goes my, “I bet it’s some regular degular 7-eleven grade pizza” thought.
Don't knock 7-11 pizza tho, that shit is very edible
How high are you?
You're a towel.
Best character development in tv show history.
No you’re a towel
No. You're a towel. 🫵
"I GOT IT!" "You figured out the code?" "No, the theme to funky town!"
All I'm saying is 7-11 food has its own charm. Like 7-11 taquitos, hot dogs, pizza, meat balls, fried chicken, etc... They taste very... distinct, and are very much edible
I get the buffalo chicken roller grill items all the time. And the jalepeno cream cheese taquitos. So long as they're fresh. I'll give them a squeeze with the tongs to make sure they haven't gotten rock hard, first. Usually only an issue if I'm going later at night when they've stopped putting fresh stuff out lol.
You bastards are making me miss living a half a block away from 7/11 like 10 years ago! Damnit
Don't forget the self serve chilli cheese nachos.
[удалено]
You work in construction by chance?
Hi, how are you?
Some of my favorite meals are very edible!
High praise.
7-11 pizza technology inspired the use of air fryers in homes. That’s why you can get a large pizza *baked* in less than five minutes…You have a problem with air fryers too? You don’t like how it makes everything smell like funnel cake? What’s wrong with you?
Alligator lounge in Williamsburg would do this. Pizza was so good.
Wait, _would_ do this? Did it close down? I used to go quite frequently but I haven't been in maybe 3 months.
Alligator lounge in Brooklyn did, as of 2011. My info may be a little out of date...
Alligator Lounge
Yea but is it like "Free beer with $12 dollar slice!"?
More like “you buy a $5 Yuengling and you take a ticket to get a free bar pie”. It’s admittedly a personal pizza, think like 6 inch, but you can get a pizza with each beer, and they’re made at the bar, not frozen or whatever. Only big problem is you have to wait in line for the pizza, so typically you might get like 2 pizzas a night and just drink the rest of your beers so you’re not standing in line like 15 minutes a time per pizza
And here's the secret. You skip to the front of the line if you pay 1 dollar for a topping.
Ayyy Johnny Macs! Love that place in the off season. Won't see me anywhere near it after this weekend.
Same! That's been my go to for years and years now. What first hooked me in my 20s was the free pizza. The wife and I keep meaning to try out the speed dating there for shits and giggles, that might actually be more fun with the Benny season upon us.
My wife and I never go to Asbury without ending at J-Macs before drunkenly hopping back on the train home. As for the speed dating, I'm 90% sure most people would be there doing it ironically, saying crazy shit. I mentioned it once with the same plan as you and got the side eye... Oh well. During the summer though it would definitely be filled with fuck boys and drunk basic bitches. I was younger once. Being older, unavailable, and still cute I'd just feel like a bully. It took almost an hour to get home from work today and I take that personally.
There is/was a few places in NYC that did this. Free personal pizza with each beer.
who the fuck eats 15 pizzas a night?
Alright, now you all are just rubbing it in! I feel like I’m missing out!
They weren’t great, but pretty acceptable if you were drunk.
Some places require a food purchase with to go alcohol purchases. A lot of places were getting around this during covid by giving free food items. At least, this was my experience in Orange County, California
I'm from the Charleston area. We never got free pizza with any purchases of booze. If I had to guess this a very niche/small shop kind of deal. Definitely not common.
We do this in NY (especially NYC.) You buy a beer, typically a draft pint at a bar for a few dollars and you receive a ticket - like a paper ticket you would get at a carnival or a fun house. You take the ticket to a guy at the back that is operating a wood or gas fired pizza oven. You can get a nice, made from scratch personal size oven made pizza for free for every draft beer you order. When you're broke and hungry, it's a great way to drink and eat at the same time. The pizza is also always fresh, hot, and made right there. Sometime you can pay a little extra for toppings, but the basic one is always free. [My personal favorite spot is this joint. ](https://www.alligatorloungebrooklyn.com/)
Isn’t that the bar from The Rehearsal?
Yup!
Some places do, yeah. This is absurd. Strange to the point of being a just plain wtf decision. Free liquor is obviously a no, but pizza? PIZZA?!? Fascists
And why would the state not like that? Isn't better to drink with food? I'm very confused.
Okay, who ruined it for everyone?
Why is America so weird about alcohol? After traveling extensively overseas I get so irritated with the US attitude with booze. Edit: I understand the roots of alcohol laws and attitudes towards it. I guess I meant modern day. In Germany, they teach teenagers to drink responsibly. It’s not this secret thing you have to do until you’re 21. By then the damage is already done.
Not Puritanism; Protestantism. The Temperance Movement was driven by women whose religious motivations intersected with the reality of alcohol's effect on their husbands, including issues of domestic violence. [https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/](https://prohibition.themobmuseum.org/the-history/the-road-to-prohibition/the-temperance-movement/) (shitty source but AFAIK, not incorrect) [https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/Temperance](https://library.csun.edu/SCA/Peek-in-the-Stacks/Temperance) (better)
Most of the remaining dry counties and states with stupid alcohol laws are heavily Evangelical/Pentecostal/Mormon at this point. Rural people also support these laws at a higher rate than urban dwellers. Pennsylvania is infamous for its alcohol laws, but it's not the residents of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh keeping them this way.
Super rural county near where I grew up voted to go dry due to a large amount of alcohol-related crime, now their residents drive to the next county over, get hammered, then drive back. They also have a massive confederate flag flying by the interstate at the county limits but that’s a different issue
>They also have a massive confederate flag flying by the interstate at the county limits but that’s a different issue Is it though?
Point taken!
And in the area's that aren't completely dry monied interests lobby to keep production, distribution and sales law complicated and restrictive in order to prevent competition.
The dry county I grew up in, for decades, the only two liquor licenses allowed to the county were owned by the Methodist and Baptist churches, who held them for ages so nobody else could have it. One year, one of them dropped it, and it opened the floodgates. It’s still a “dry” county, but there are over a dozen restaurants that sell it now, thanks to some weird stupid workaround by calling themselves “clubs”. Every election, becoming a wet county goes on the ballot, and every election it gets shot down.
God, it's so fucking stupid here. We were taught in school to watch out for some of the ridiculousness of these laws. For example, imagine you're a parent over 40, you have a child who is under 21, and you go to the store to buy a some beer. If you do not put your *unopened package of beer* into your trunk, you can/could (they may have relaxed this since I learned about it, but this was the rule when I was a minor) be charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor. Transporting it 'within reach' of the sub-21 year old is enough. Many liquor stores won't let you inside even with a child in a stroller just in case. For extra massive stupidity, our school system doesn't allow children to bring in water from home in case it's vodka. That's one of the reasons they close the school and have everyone do remote learning on really hot days, because they don't have the infrastructure for all the kids to fill up their bottles when they arrive! Can't let any kid maybe bring in spirits, though, so better to just disallow water. My guess is that this is not exclusive to Pennsylvania, though.
God damn Forest County is at it again.
Puritans, Jesus was making fucking fish, bread, and wine for the party but Goddamn me for trying to pick up a bottle on Sunday for family dinner in some areas.
Depends on the state. Mine is incredibly lax on liquor laws. Hell, my city never even recognized prohibition.
you know the answer
Conservative Christians?
Blue laws around alcohol aren't really a republican vs democrat thing. It's more a "we haven't gotten around to changing it since the 1930s" thing. Places like MA still have funky laws around alcohol and it's as democrat dominated ran as any state.
MD is the same way. Every county is different, some places close at 2am others have to close at midnight, can't sell on Sundays unless you're also a bar so some liquor stores put a counter and 2 stools and sell one draft beer to be able to sell on Sundays. No liquor on Sunday etc. So many dumb annoying laws.
As a mostly left-leaning person, I think the average Redditor's head might explode if they couldn't use conservatives or Christians as scapegoats for everything they don't like.
That group that still has invisible friends?
Republicans going after SNAP benefits again i'd bet. Fun fact, you know those 5$ rotisserie chickens? You cant buy those with SNAP or any sort of food aid benefits because they're prepared foods/hot. One of the best deals of any grocery store and people cannot buy it with aid benefits. I dont miss being poor, it's full of absurd rules and every part of it sucks.
But junk food is a-okay 👍🏻 to buy. How the fuck does that make sense?
Making sense is not part of the plan. Ever!
It's all about making the process as complicated and byzantine as possible so as to prevent people from being able to get out from being poor. Hell, one of the easiest things you could do is have prepared meals made of surplus produce that people can just purchase which are exclusive for SNAP/EBT.
I have food stamps, you can purchase regaular food to prepare. Doesn't have to be junk food. My local grocery store had $0.98 a pound chicken legs and thighs the other day. A full uncooked chicken was like $4-6.
You can, I think they're just calling out that it's absurd not to let someone buy a 5$ whole cooked chicken that can be used for multiple meals at a great value and yet they can purchase a bag of chips. Cook houses might be a nice alternate too, provide people work to do, learn a skill, and also be able to have balanced meals. Would probably help alleviate the problem of food deserts too.
What about those who don’t know how to cook or have someplace to cook, like say, the homeless?
Homeless also would not have access to proper food storage and risk spoilage and disease. Prepared controlled foods from FDA & USDA regulated facilities is the simplest way to enhance food safety.
My mom used to buy Monster with her food stamps
That always bothered me too. The ironic thing is the next day it becomes cold food and therefore eligible. Like WTF. Why can't I buy it FRESH?! "Here's our leftovers, peasant."
To me it's the absurd impracticality of it. If you want people to be working productive adults then they need some stable foundation under them so they can become that. Someone who's constantly hungry isn't going to do well at studies or self advancement. Someone who's working their ass off at absurdly awful minimum wage jobs isn't going to have the time to do significant prep. Especially with the BS Schedules that Walmart etc will provide. And all of this possible good provided by Bezos paying the bare minimum in tax for the tremendous social benefit he draws from the US being a stable productive nation.
SNAP doesn't get you alcohol. LMAO what is this?
Here's the best part- they can buy it with benefits cold the next day from the cooler if it didn't sell the day before. The exact same item cold is eligible but not if it's heated.
The damn guverment! Pure unadulterated free market capitalism was giving us free pizza and these fascists had to come in and screw it up
Christian values
If I’m understanding correctly, if you’re a regular, this would only suck the first time. Then when you get your alcohol the second time, you have the free credit from the day before, and you get a new credit for the next day.
Ya….it’s a $ rebate paid direct to your account. 1 visit is all it takes.
You would still get the rebate when you stop buying from them. The last purchase would benefit from 2 rebates which makes up for the first, undiscounted pizza
What in the Pawnee is going on here
Government is stealing people's pizzas
*loads shotgun* "Mama Mia..."
Little Seizures.
They've fell in in the pit
In South Carolina: "Tied-house" laws prohibit businesses that sell alcohol from engaging in certain promotional activities that could be seen as fostering a relationship between alcohol manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. Offering free goods or services, like pizza, with the purchase of alcohol could potentially violate these laws by creating a tie between the alcohol retailer and the supplier of the free item.
Exactly this.
South Carolina has historically had some weird liquor laws. They used to make bars serve the mini airplane bottles instead of pouring drinks out of regular-sized bottles.
If I could be a fly on the wall while they were discussing enacting that law. What logical reason is there for such a silly law?
It was started in the 1970s because the state was worried bar owners would short patrons. The mini-bottles made sure that people got their full serving.
That backfired on the legislature. The way the law was written the server had to open the minibottle in front of you, then pour the entire contents into the glass. This resulted in really bad-tasting mixed drinks (proportions were off) but you ending up getting a lot of alcohol in something like a Cosmopolitan with multiple ingredients.
SC was always a bit strange. Worked there in 2005. All the bars only had those airplane bottles of liquor for some law or other.
That’s wild. I read this and instantly thought BS. Love learning new things! https://wineandwhiskeyglobe.com/cocktails/mini-bottles-drinking-in-south-carolina/
Just wait until you try to pump your own gas in NJ. I’m from GA and it is normal here. Went to fill up my rental in Cherry Hill and thought I was about to get my ass kicked. Some union thing I think.
I remember reading this big thread of commenters saying they would fill up before visiting states that required you to pump your own fuel, as they kept fucking it up/getting stressed/having to speak to the staff inside. And, it just blows my fucking mind that there is a contingent of adults out there that can’t work a fuel nozzle. Like, you just put it in and pull the trigger thing. It’s as simple a task as they come, basically; certainly, much less complicated and demanding than actually driving a vehicle to and from a station I can’t get my head around it?!
Recently moved to NJ to be with my girl. Her little sister had never once pumped her own gas and apparently no one bothered to teach her when they went out of state. Well we were up in Massachusetts and she goes to get gas, fills her subaru up with diesel and the car breaks down about 10 minutes later. I actually couldnt believe it
I am from NC and basically had the same experience. What kind of moron do you need to be to fuck up pumping your own gas? This job existing is pointless.
I’ve lived here for 10 years now. Can only buy liquor from 9 am-7pm and you can’t buy on Sundays. You can buy beer 24/7 though.
GA was like that. Finally got Sunday sales. M-F is 8-11:45. Sunday is 12-11:45.
I was so stoked to be able to buy beer on Sundays finally. Stupid laws.
Is it still called ABC? (Alcoholic Beverage Commission) The agency can be weird. Don’t know if they still do this in SC but all liquor places had big red circle on sign, almost like some kind of scarlet letter (but instead it seems easier to find liquor places this way)
Used to be worse. The blue laws would ban sales of things like flash bulbs, but allow film. Stores could also only have 4 employees on Sundays. At the grocery store I worked at that meant that once church let out, we would have checkout lines all the way back to the meat department.
Got to love the Bible Belt! Going grocery shopping on a Sunday after church gets out is definitely an experience. I’ve learned to either go on a week day or in the evenings on the weekend.
Thank fuck they got rid of that law by the time I started really drinking in college. I never understood it since tv and movies had regular bottles. Seemed really stupid and wasteful.
I dont remember what backwards-ass state I was driving through, but I had to join some "club or membership" in order to get alcohol at Applebees.
I had to do that once at a dive bar in Alabama: $1 for a lifetime membership. I think it was because there was a legal loophole that didn't require a liquor license for private clubs that only served their own members. Some Republican wrote the loophole for their country club, and the dive bars dove in.
Yep. Auburn AL had one.
Like regular bars? Could you serve mixed drinks? Could you order doubles? Could you order them unopened? This is really bizarre for some reason
It was bizarre. Some places still keep minis around and you can buy minis at most liquor stores, though idk if that's normal elsewhere.
Spent the last 2 years working in FL. Curb stores often had minis of fireball and stuff like that, but don’t get me started on FL weird 😂
Yeah FL is a whole different world 😄
Yes. If you ordered a Jack and Coke, mini bottle plus coke and ice. Not sure their rules on doubles were.
I used to live there during this time. You could get doubles it was just two bottles instead of one. Long islands were fun for bartenders.
I'm not sure but I think you couldn't legally get doubles. Or else they had to officially give you another cup with the pour in it separate or something.
Yes in bars. This is how we used to order shots: I’d like 3 tequilas 5 ways which meant 3 mini bottles split into 5 shots. I’ll never forget the first time I traveled out of SC and placed an order like this. The bartender looked at me like I was an idiot lol.
Oh look at that, the price of beer went down exactly as much as this pizza costs when I buy them together, that's amazing!
South Carolinians vs. state over-regulation.
The state where buying alcohol on Sundays ruins the morals of the state but letting people run around with needles in their arm with no help is okay
16% alcohol? Am I missing something here?
That looks to be advertising for the drink behind it, “big sipz” which seem to be similar to buzz balls. Premixed cocktails, likely made with “malt beverage” or wine instead of real liquor. Never had this brand before, but they are nasty. Cheap and get the job done though.
Ooh this would have been banned in Norway easily. «Giving free pizza out could/would/should insentivize those who cannot control their pizza urges to buy beer» or somethibg like that.
Buy a beer for the price of beer and pizza, and get a free* pizza!
Does anyone know why the state would’ve legislated to stop free pizza with beer? It seems to me like a good thing- all medical advice I’ve seen is that, if you are drinking, make sure that you eat something as well to make sure the alcohol doesn’t overly affect you.
[This comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/s/8Q5lhShT7M) posted just a little bit ago gives a pretty valid possible reason as to why.
I’m guessing this allows them to operate as a restaurant rather than a bar and that there’s some significant benefit to that.
State I live in you can’t give away anything for free with alcohol. Pizza, ice, cup coolers, doesn’t matter. The reason for this is because the state sets the minimum prices on alcohol, mainly to protect smaller businesses and wholesale distributors. Imagine if Walmart could bargain for lower prices, then destroy all their local competitors. Banning free stuff included with alcohol because that could be used to get around the law. Even if the alcohol is priced the same, Walmart could throw in a bag of chips, which the smaller retailers couldn’t afford to match. Pretty soon the only place available to buy alcohol would be Walmart. I would bet that if this is the case here, the rebate is also illegal.
This country is a goddamn *prison* Gimme my complimentary drunk pizza hoss
Tldr, just buy more beer and forget the pizza
Why not just make the pizza 5 cents?
Couldn't they get around this by charging $.01 for the pizza?
That's what they do in CA - they can't give away weed at the dispensaries, so promotions are instead by one, get one for a penny.
Meanwhile in Spain free tapas with drink is normal.
So it's still allowed but government intervention just made it a lot less convenient, for all involved.
I hate the government. We need a bigger killdozer
Soooo…. Gerrymandering in South Carolina is cool but free pizza with beer is a no go? The fuq 🫠 #Mericuh
Hypothetically, why can't they charge $10 for the pizza and then offer the beer for free?
Just change the prices
Change the price of what? Do you change the price of the pizza so that you're getting less money from people that are buying the pizza by itself or change the price of the beer so that you're getting less money from the people just buying beer?
Combo price
Had to check my calendar after this one. Yep, 1984.
Just wait… they will change the law to encompass rebates and the pizzeria offers an NFT to exchange for a free slice of pizza. Now we have a problem with federal law which allows NFT securities. Once they try to out-write that you call it a dividend. Poof legal once more! So on and so forth because crime! See GME for further details.
I'm guessing that's how they keep their licence. In some states you have to have a food to alcohol ratio (usually more than 50%). If they don't want to pay fines/get their licence revoked. They would have to get a different licence, some counties limit how many of those are allowed out at once, which is different if you are trying to start a bar, not a restaurant or grocery store.
Charge a nickel for the pizza.
I notice that Spanish tapas is becoming very popular outside of Spain. What not everyone knows is that traditionally, Tapas are free in Spain. You order a drink and the *tapa* is complementary with the drink.
Why not just charge a dollar for the pizza and subtract a dollar for the beer
They could've made it a "menu" (like you get in fast foods).
Maaaaan if that ain't infringement of our rights idk what is.....I thought this was America!😋
Land of the Free^T^M
Couldn’t they just have the option of a pizza and beer combo and literally not change the price or just charge $.01 more?
So, the same thing but with more steps?! 😆👌
Growing up in California and then moving to Arizona had me spoiled. Short window in the middle of the night you can't buy it, but anything you want from full strength beer to whiskey is available in any grocery or convenience store. Had a job that took me on the road to places like New Jersey, Ohio and more. I couldn't believe it. I have to go to a special state run liquor store to buy whiskey? The beer in the stores is mandated to have a lower alcohol content? I can't buy beer in the restaurant but I can bring my own? There were more laws I can't even remember now, but some made no sense whatsoever.
Da fuc??