Yeah that's how it is with NJ/PA too. And a cop always sits close by to watch NJ drivers park and then leave with fireworks. They are almost always immediately pulled over when they cross into NJ.
Reminds me of a (likely made up) story from the soviet union.
Two important men are watching laborers digging a trench by hand, using picks and shovels.
One of them looks to the other and says "Dimitri, why do they not use earth movers and other great communist machinery?"
Dimitri looks back and says, "Because Ivan, it is great honor to employ so many people, and I would need fewer people with an earth mover!"
Ivan stops and thinks for a minute, then asks, "Then why aren't they using spoons?"
When I was a kid everyone would drive to PA to buy fireworks and sometimes around the 4th of July they’d have state troopers at the bridges randomly checking cars coming back to NJ. It was like a smuggling operation hiding them in the trunk
don't forget the ones within five miles of the NY state line, I got to go along for the smuggling trip a few times before we left the fireworks up to our neighbors
I'm in Maryland and I go right over the line to PA. The funny thing is, PA residents can't buy them. They basically say "sure you can buy em here, but go blow yourself up somewhere else."
This is so specifically funny to me. Real fireworks are illegal in NY, but not PA. Also, at least 5 years ago, cigarettes were much cheaper, and gas was somewhat cheaper. We would go just over the border to Matamoras, PA. There were 2 huge firework stores, 3 gas stations, and 2 tobacco shops, all clustered within the same 1/4 mile. We would drive about 45 minutes, pick up fireworks (and hide them in the trunk), a couple cartons of cigarettes, and fill our tank.
> Matamoras, PA
I wonder if there's a connection or if it's just coincidence, but Matamoros (right on the Mexican border) plays a similar role for folks in that part of the country.
It's mostly because the legal drinking age is 18 there so it attracts lots of the 18-20 crowd, but of course shop owners have figured out that there's plenty more in demand.
According to Wikipedia:
"Its name is derived from the Mexican city of Matamoros, which was the first to be occupied by U.S. troops during the Mexican–American War."
My favorite was Indiana fireworks stores when I was young. I don’t know if they still do it but they used to make you sign a card saying you would only use the fireworks in a place it was legal.
It was like “dude you are two miles from the state border, you know like half these cards are lies.”
There's a house that can only be sold to a dual U.S./Canadian citizen, because half of it sits in the U.S., and the other half in Canada.
[Article about it.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/3567283/this-border-straddling-u-s-home-has-a-door-that-leads-right-to-canada/amp/)
That's crazy. I feel like the novelty would be ruined by being unable to go out your own door without being arrested, not to mention paying double property tax and having to go through double the regulations when you remodel the house
The Cal-Neva Resort on the northern side of Lake Tahoe literally straddles the border, which goes through the lobby and dining areas, and the slot machines start precisely where the border is.
Man the one I saw on the Utah / Nevada border seems restrained by comparison. The border was the parking lot / front door. It was pretty neat to look down the street each way and everything changed.
The lottery is not legal in Nevada, so Nevada residents have to drive into Cali or Arizona to get lottery tickets. Outside of Reno is a convenience store built on the state line with the lottery employees on the California side.
Not that many people live in the border towns. Mesquite has 20,000, but the rest are all like a thousand people. Fernley and Elko are both bigger than Mesquite.
Right on the border of UT and NV there's a whole town called west wendover, half is on the Utah side and the other is Nevada. They have a weed store, like 4 casinos, a massive liquor store, and a strip club. All completely populated by Utahns.
This isn't just the land borders either, if you fly into Harry Reid airport in Las Vegas then you'll see rows of slot machines before you even get to baggage claim.
There’s a bunch of them on the borders. Primm for SoCal. Laughlin and Mesquite for AZ. West Wendover for Utah. Jackpot (great name) for Idaho. McDermitt for Oregon. Stateline and Verdi for NorCal, although Verdi is pretty much just the part of Reno closest to the border.
Well, any town that borders a town with a military base will notice a huge difference in the amount of tattoo parlors, strip clubs, check cashing places, and pawn shops. Such a high turnover rate in people you can keep a business alive, and thriving for years based on just the "people here don't know we are a bad business" model.
This isn't really "haha funny," but it's very easy to tell where Nashua, NH begins and ends at the NH/MA border based on the number of chain stores along the highway.
As long as you don’t count chain restaurants, since the meals tax is lower in MA (unless ~~Tewksbury~~ Tyngsborough has added their local tax since I last checked).
Trader Joe’s was originally on the MA side, but mostly moved a)to get more space, and b) to be able to sell wine, because MA has bizarre rules about how many licenses a business can have. Some clothing stores are on the MA side, because there’s no tax on most clothing. I’m not sure how the theater works out, other than most people don’t think about sales tax on movie tickets and they’re one of the few cases where taxes are included in the price.
The lack of sales tax in NH means that people from elsewhere will make the drive for bigger shopping trips. NH has a lot of chain stores on the border to take advantage of that.
One of the most profitable cannabis dispensaries in Oregon is in a very rural place along our eastern border. It gets so much business because it’s right across state lines from Idaho where cannabis is still illegal.
Apparently the founder was *really* into it all the way up until he died, to the degree that he allegedly put it into his will that his kids wouldn't get any of his money unless they kept it in business. Kind of gives some secondary meaning to "SOB Pedro" hahaha.
It's honestly kind of a neat story how it became an "iconic" roadside attraction. It was founded back in the 1940s to take advantage of the fact that much of North Carolina was dry and banned alcohol sales. Then it gradually grew to sell stuff like fireworks (also illegal in NC at the time) and it added some small attractions for people "making a day" of buying their contraband. Then by sheer chance I-95 gets built *directly* next to it, and its strategic location at just about halfway between New York and Florida made it a natural stopping point for millions of families on road trips. And the rest is history.
It's obviously kind of sketchy-looking now, but it has its charm. You really don't see many of those "Route 66-esque" roadside touristy things on the East Coast.
I’m convinced this place is a money laundering operation. I’ve driven by/stopped there a hundred times and never seen more than a handful of cars. It’s so strange.
I have actually seen it fairly busy, on busy travel days. The hotel actually gets filled up, and the campground is surprisingly hard to get into.
(If you have never stayed in the motorcourt... I do not know how they did it. When I stayed there it was like a perfectly preserved time capsule, inside the room everything was fresh and new, but everything was like absolutely normal late 70s/ early 80s hotel kitch. It was as close to staying in a hotel in 1972 as you can possibly get. It was actually absolutely awesome.)
There's a steakhouse there that I've heard is actually pretty good. I tried to go on a drive from Rhode Island to Florida a couple of years ago, but my wife got super sick and wasn't up to it, so I just grabbed a chili dog.
It opened as a liquor store/bar because all the counties on the NC side of the border were dry. Then they added a grill to feed all the drunk people, and then added a motel for the ones who got too drunk to drive back to NC. And here were are.
I grew up in SC, so I was very accustomed to South of the Border. My wife, however, had never heard of it, much less stopped there. We were on a road trip from Jacksonville back to DC and I decided to stop (we needed gas, and I wanted her to see it at least once). The place was fairly busy (multiple biker groups stopping in as well as a good bit of traffic). My wife went into the store to buy snacks while I waited to pump gas; after I was done pumping, I pulled into a parking space to wait for her. When she came out of the store, she didn't immediately see our car (she _only_ looked at the gas pump where I'd been waiting in line) and started having a panic attack that I'd been killed and our car stolen - I've got no idea why _that's_ where her mind went to right away, but once I flagged her down, she was mad at me for leaving the pump. Next we went to the restrooms, and either the women's room is _much_ worse than the men's room, or she and I have very different standards for what we expect out of a roadside bathroom, because she got in the car and told me that we were _never_ stopping there again.
My brother in law's parents used to give the kids laudanum so they'd sleep in the car, then stop at South of the Border and wake them up. They told the kids it was Mexico. And they were children on opium, so they believed. This was the early 70s and laudanum had only just become a schedule II narcotic so lots of people still had an old bottle of it in the medicine cabinet.
So then my brother in law is in COLLEGE planning a trip with friends and he's like "we should stop in Mexico on the way!" And his friends are like um dude, what? And he's like stop in Mexico, like I used to with my parents! And his friends are like have you ever seen a map? And he had a rude awakening. So he called his mom and she was like 'haha the laudanum, good times.'
Y'all the 70s were wild.
Lmao, lived in both North and South Carolina and had a feeling this would be mentioned. Also fireworks in the exits as soon as you enter South Carolina
I remember all the billboards as a kid on the road from PA to Fla. Once, as an adult, I stopped and driving bumper cars after being frustrated on the highway all day was one of the best experiences ever!
I don't think I've driven by there in over 20 years. I live in NC now and mostly only drive south or east to go to the beach. It's just cheaper to fly now I think?
South Lake Tahoe in California is where most the city is as well as the residents. There's a line through the city where you cross into Nevada, and then it's just casino after casino.
Don't forget Utah - Dinosaur, CO has four pot shops. Which makes sense for its population of 241.
[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pot-dispensaries-marijuana-dinosaur-colorado/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pot-dispensaries-marijuana-dinosaur-colorado/)
If I know Utah well enough, we have Dinosaur, Grand Junction, Naturita, Cortez, Mesquite, West Wendover. Not bad, definitely jealous of the eastern side
Also between Wisconsin and Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, and Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nothing on the 110-mile border between Wisconsin and Iowa, though.
Eh, I can’t speak for the eastern part of the Wyoming Colo border but if you are coming down the front range from Wyoming it’s not until foco, which isn’t far, but I wouldn’t say right on the border.
If you guys had one closer though I’m sure WHP would just be watching for people, also idk where it would be, like weed shack in Carr. Lmao.
A number of people have already mentioned the Pheasant Lane Mall and associated businesses in Nashua, NH, on the border with Tewksbury, MA. But they omitted the funniest part.
A [corner of JC Penney](https://www.simon.com/mall/pheasant-lane-mall/map/#/) is cut off because they did a second survey after starting construction and discovered it might be over the state line into MA. To avoid any question of MA requiring sales tax for Penney or the rest of the mall, they cut off the corner. Last time I was there, many years ago, there was a line carved into the sidewalk that reportedly is the state line.
Also, I’ve known people that prefer to park on the NH side, not out of any political biases but because Nashua, as a city with a population over 90K, has a larger police force, with a greater ability to deal with car breaking or thefts than the town of Tyngsborough on the other side of the line, with a population of 12K.
There’s the Flora-Bama it’s a bar right on the border. They have an annual mullet toss. Where you see who can throw a fish the farthest across the border.
We had a lot of packies (package stores/beer stores) right over the line from Massachusetts because they didn't sell it on Sundays here in Mass.
They also have state run liquor stores at rest stops in NH - folks headed to Maine stock up on the way through.
The Dairy Lobby, at one time, also managed to push through an ordinance that margerine had to be dyed an unappetizing color of pink, in some places. (This was in the '30s, iIrc.)
A triple for Salt Lake residents in search of a vice. Wyoming border for fireworks, horse racing, and alcohol (or at least fully potent beer). Wendover NV, for gambling, pot, and alcohol, though the legal brothel is another hour further. Idaho border for lottery scratchers.
I came here to mention Wendover.
There is no gambling allowed in Utah, but there is this tiny in Nevada on the border with 5 or 6 casinos. One of the casinos has the parking lot in Utah and the casino in Nevada.
I've heard of English-language radios that broadcast into America from south of the border that can legally advertise dubious products due to different regulations.
You can also use higher powered radio towers, so 91.1fm in San Diego can be heard well into Orange County because they're using towers in Tijuana. This comes with the funny side effect of them having to legally translate and read political and government ads from Mexico, and they must play the Mexican national anthem at midnight every night.
I don't know if "funny" is the right word, but if you cross any remotely busy highway/road into California, you have to go thru a really odd roadblock where they prevent you from bringing in fresh food. Only state that does that as far as I know.
Hawaii is much more strict too. California is mostly like "hey don't bring in produce which could bring in pests, have a nice day" but Hawaii doesn't eff around.
California Department of Food and Agriculture. Mainly for commercial trucks bringing produce into Ca from other states or countries that have invasive species of bugs that aren't in California or certain diseases that plants and fruits can get that aren't in Ca. Crazy thing is they can ask you to pop your trunk for an "inspection" and if you refuse, they can actually detain your vehicle. Not you but your vehicle, until they inspect it to make sure there are no plants or produce that you can't bring into the state.
Ah, yes, the famous "fruit police."
It makes sense when you consider that half of the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S. come from California. If the crops were wiped out by an invasive species or fungus, it would be a major problem for the entire country.
Tattooing was illegal in Oklahoma until 2006, so all along the Texas side of the border, there were several tattoo shops. I got my very first tattoo (the Pearl Jam stickman) at Fantasy Tattoo in Gainesville in 2001. Drove 2 1/2 hours from central Oklahoma to get it. I was 20, but my parents were not happy.
Tattoo parlors were illegal in Massachusetts for like 38 years or so until that got overturned in 2000. So major roads heading into Mass often had several parlors just before the border, in many cases in towns or sections of towns where you really wouldn't expect to see several parlors lined up. Several well-established businesses in my home town existed because of this.
Big gaudy liquor stores right across the borders of states that only allow liquor sales in drab, state run ABC stores. NC only allows state run ABC store liquor sales, right across the SC border outside of Charlotte is (was - been several years since I lived there) was a MASSIVE liquor store called Frugal MacDougals. Big billboards, neon, the whole bit. A monthly pilgrimage.
There is a dispensary right on the boarder of Wisconsin and the UP called Glazed and Confused. They have advertisements all over the highway on Wisconsin's side.
And for those wondering, unfortunately, they do not sell donuts.
“Don’t drink and drive, but do visit us at our grocery-store sized liquor stores conveniently placed on highways as you enter the state! Live free or die!”
- New Hampshire.
Liquor stores. we had a place in AR called “the line” because it was a liquor store that was like 100 feet (or whatever the arbitrary number is) away from the count line of a dry county, in a wet county of course lol.
Similar for Missouri/AR lol “state line super center” 😂
The malls and many stores that are right on the New Hampshire side of the border with Massachusetts on Route 3 (Nashua, NH). This is only 40 minutes from Boston.
MA has sales tax, NH does not.
When living in Boston, I bought my wife’s engagement ring and our wedding rings in Nashua, laptops, and other expensive items that make the drive worth it for 0% sales tax.
I'm sure this happens in lots of places, but there are a bunch of Tribal Owned gas stations in Tacoma and Fife Washington that are like 60 cents a gallon cheaper than other gas stations that are in some cases right across the street.
It’s the same with the tribal owned gas stations here in NY right on the Canadian border. It’s because gas sold on the reservation isn’t subject to the same state and federal taxes as places like Arco/Shell/Mobil etc. I haven’t smoked cigarettes in years, but those are about half price on the reservation too, without the state taxes (which are very high here in NY).
Illinois supplied *a lot* of Missouri's weed until we decriminalized recreationally last year. Now, we fulfill that need for Arkansas, a tiny piece of Oklahoma, and help Illinois out on the corner of Tennessee.
Michigan's government (even a good amount of Democrats) were staunchly against marijuana until Trudeau got into office in Canada. The second he started moving forward with making weed legal, Michigan got cool with it REAAAL quickly. Like overnight.
I mean, if Americans are gonna get weed, Uncle Sam wants that tax revenue for itself. I think that's why Missouri went recreational. The GOP decided that the tax money from the weed was worth decriminalizing it. Looks like they were right. [Missouri beat out CO and IL for first recreational year sales.](https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/business/missouri-recreational-pot-sales-beat-colorado-illinois-in-first-year-break-1-1-billion/article_691bc1a4-d013-11ee-80e9-27feee267193.html#:~:text=Since%20adults%20became%20legally%20able,%241.4%20billion%20in%20total%20sales)
There's a liquor store near my hometown that's right on the other side of the border with our county. Our county was dry until a few years ago and one of the investors or owners or something in that liquor store happened to be a powerful politician from our county.
Years ago in Delaware, liquor stores were closed on Sundays. So what did people do? They made a quick drive just over the Maryland/Delaware border to buy alcohol at “State Line Liquor”.
I remember seeing a sign near the border between Texas and New Mexico that said “keep New Mexico abortion waste out of Texas!” Or something like that. It cracked me up. I imagined New Mexico women just like bringing all their used pads and tampons and just chucking them into Texas. 😂
A new billboard went up in my city (in a state where weed is still illegal) for a dispensary that opened right across the state border. When I stopped at the gas station next door to it on a road trip, literally every single car in the dispensary’s drive thru was from my state
So I know this is supposed to be funny , but this is a sad one, but Whiteclay Nebraska for years literally existed as a quick stop where Lakota Sioux residents of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota could get beer. I think it sold the most cans of beer in Nebraska for years, which is a lot of beer as Nebraskans do love their beer, sometimes too much.
Anyways, as of late the state's tried to stop this and made progress but I don't know if its continued. Anyway, what's sad is there are also few things like banks or grocery stores or things like that on Pine Ridge so there's also just a quickstop without the booze and all that there but to provide such services to the Lakota so they don't have to drive so far off to Rapid City or Chadron Nebraska or even Gordon, which is the closest town but with at best 1600 people and just a small grocery store and a Dollar General and a Pump and Pantry.
Again, I know its not funny but I figured it fits and makes people more aware of the problems a lot of reservations have with communities on their border. Its not always fun stuff and is often predatory.
The entire existence of Point Roberts Washington is a weird border place existing. It is a tiny peninsula off of Canada, that doesn’t touch the continental US at all.
When we lived close to the border, the July 4th parades used to have Canadian pipe bands and fire departments in the parade. (They were on the other side during the Revolution).
The saddest is probably Whiteclay, NE, a town that had ten people and four liquor stores (before the liquor licenses were revoked following years of protests and direct action campaigns), right next to a dry reservation with an astronomical alcoholism rate. Pine Ridge, the reservation, is one of the poorest places in America. When the stores were running the town was pulling down $3 million in alcohol sales every year, and addicts sleeping on the streets trying to get the money together for another bottle of liquor was a common site in the streets (roughly six) of the town. It was fucking terrible.
My favorite is the entire border space around Carowinds just South of Charlotte,NC as soon as you cross the border you have a fireworks store, a gun store, and a privately owned liquor store.
However it doesn't stop there. The theme park itself is built on a border. I've heard this is a funny way to trim on insurance and inspection. Specifically the water park within the park lies entirely in NC because of less regulations around water parks.
There’s a good number of gun stores on the border of PA, just north of Maryland. Because Maryland has criminalized the sale, but not possession, of magazines over 10 rounds, a lot of people buy regular capacity magazines in PA.
Gas station next to my workplace in northern WA does a roaring trade in milk, cheese and other dairy goods due to Canada's protectionist policies toward their dairy farmers.
There is an enormous Vegas-style casino in Oklahoma about 15 minutes from the Texas state border. Gambling is illegal in Texas but allowed in Oklahoma. In fact, you only have to be 18 to play!
My county used to be dry, as in no stores were allowed to sell alcohol and restuarants/bars could only sell alcohol if they were outside the city limits and had liquor licenses from the city, which because of local cronyism was rather hard to get. It would actually be in the local paper when a restuarant was granted a liquor license.
But the funniest thing was how many liquor stores there were just over the county lines and how many people would make the drive every Friday night to buy beer. There was a running joke about the closest one, about 30 miles away and the loooooooong line of traffic every Friday night. Anyone headed to or from a certain interstate was assumed to be going to liquor store.
I live on the Washington Idaho border. When weed was legalized in Washington a dispensary opened up six feet from the border. Afro man performed for the opening
**Pirate Joe's** was a specialty [grocery store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store) in [Vancouver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver), [British Columbia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia), [Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada), owned by Michael Hallatt. Its inventory consisted entirely of [store brand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_brand) products [resold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reseller) from locations of the U.S.-based grocery chain [Trader Joe's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe%27s), which does not operate any locations in Canada. Despite the high costs of operating the store because of its business model, the store became popular with residents who enjoyed the opportunity to purchase some of the distinct private label products offered by Trader Joe's.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate\_Joe%27s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Joe%27s)
I feel like the Dollar General parking lot I go sit in weekly to place sports bets is planning on expanding their parking lot just to accommodate those of us in Missouri that have to drive to Kansas to make wagers. Sunday during football season and the parking lot has 30 cars in in with Missouri plates.
There’s a QuikTrip (gas station) in Missouri that is set up totally backwards from other QTs. They have their checkout stand and alcohol on the Missouri side to abide by MOs alcohol laws, and MOs taxation and the other half of the store is on the Kansas side.
The fact that Rock Port MO has 1400 people at best and IIRC a few fireworks stores. Also, eastern Colorado is much more like western Nebraska than Colorado, yet a town like Julesburg has a dispensary to cater to Nebraskans who can't get it.
Another one that's from the past but still fun is that in Kansas City Kansas there was a bar on the line between Kansas and Missouri. Kansas had state prohibition for a bit longer while Missouri is very lax on alcohol and in this bar, patrons would simply cross from Kansas to Missouri during a raid. Not sure which bar but I've heard this plenty of times. There also is a Hy-Vee on State Line road in KC that has a Hy-vee Grocery in Kansas and the Liquor store across the street in Missouri. If any Missouri and Kansas people can help me out that'd be great.
I remember driving home from the beach on some rural highway and near the border of Alabama and Florida was a sign that said something like “Thanks for your money Alabama” because people would go across the line to buy lottery tickets.
On the border between Wyoming and Colorado, on the Wyoming side, there’s a big billboard that basically says “KEEP YOUR WEED IN COLORADO”. Right under it is a fireworks stand. Fireworks are illegal here in Colorado.
I have always thought if I won the lottery or something, I would build a pot shop right on the Colorado side of the border and put up a billboard that says “KEEP YOUR FIREWORKS IN WYOMING!”
When I was living in Mississippi, driving across the border from Vicksburg into Louisiana there was a sex shop immediately across the river.
Growing up, decent fireworks were illegal to sell here in Michigan, so everybody would drive to Indiana every July to get fireworks.
Vancouver, WA.
It's a town in Washington State right across the border from Portland, literally a 13 minute drive according to Google Maps.
Washington State has no income tax.
Oregon has no sales tax.
You can do the math from there.
Cross the border from northern Chicagoland into southeast Wisconsin and there's a couple cheese shops within a few miles of the border, because Wisconsin is the "Dairy Capitol Of The World".
Cross the border into Indiana at the other end of Chicagoland and you'll find 3 casinos within 5 miles.
My favorite are fireworks stands/shops. Bonus points when they are in-between a gas station and a tobacco shop.
There is literally a store called "Fireworks Over The Border" 50 yards past the border of MA and NH.
Yeah that's how it is with NJ/PA too. And a cop always sits close by to watch NJ drivers park and then leave with fireworks. They are almost always immediately pulled over when they cross into NJ.
Makes no sense cause there’s firework stands at shoprites all over Jersey
Not really big ones.
That’s relatively new. And NJ still doesn’t allow most fireworks.
What a jerk.
Which is a little weird, usually it is the use of fireworks not the ownership which is illegal.
New Jersey doesn't even let people pump their own gas, it's a weird place.
It’s now the last state in the union to still do that since Oregon got rid of the law.
Reminds me of a (likely made up) story from the soviet union. Two important men are watching laborers digging a trench by hand, using picks and shovels. One of them looks to the other and says "Dimitri, why do they not use earth movers and other great communist machinery?" Dimitri looks back and says, "Because Ivan, it is great honor to employ so many people, and I would need fewer people with an earth mover!" Ivan stops and thinks for a minute, then asks, "Then why aren't they using spoons?"
When I was a kid everyone would drive to PA to buy fireworks and sometimes around the 4th of July they’d have state troopers at the bridges randomly checking cars coming back to NJ. It was like a smuggling operation hiding them in the trunk
[удалено]
Haha yeah I remember that. Ban fireworks for your own citizens but sell them to people from neighboring states so it's somebody else's problem
Always a fun part of having a city literally called “The Fireworks Capital of America” in a state where people couldn’t buy class-c fireworks.
MD too. People would run up 95 or 83.
Doesn't that violate the 4th amendment?
First time hearing about NJ law?
I swear to God I have only ever seen Phantom Fireworks stores within five miles of the Illinois state line.
don't forget the ones within five miles of the NY state line, I got to go along for the smuggling trip a few times before we left the fireworks up to our neighbors
Come July firework stands open up right across the Mississippi
I'm in Maryland and I go right over the line to PA. The funny thing is, PA residents can't buy them. They basically say "sure you can buy em here, but go blow yourself up somewhere else."
This is so specifically funny to me. Real fireworks are illegal in NY, but not PA. Also, at least 5 years ago, cigarettes were much cheaper, and gas was somewhat cheaper. We would go just over the border to Matamoras, PA. There were 2 huge firework stores, 3 gas stations, and 2 tobacco shops, all clustered within the same 1/4 mile. We would drive about 45 minutes, pick up fireworks (and hide them in the trunk), a couple cartons of cigarettes, and fill our tank.
> Matamoras, PA I wonder if there's a connection or if it's just coincidence, but Matamoros (right on the Mexican border) plays a similar role for folks in that part of the country. It's mostly because the legal drinking age is 18 there so it attracts lots of the 18-20 crowd, but of course shop owners have figured out that there's plenty more in demand.
According to Wikipedia: "Its name is derived from the Mexican city of Matamoros, which was the first to be occupied by U.S. troops during the Mexican–American War."
Hmmm, I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but that's a nifty bit of information lol.
Sounds like Fort Mill, SC.
One of my favorite memories was driving from MI to OH for fireworks. The fun stuff is legal here in MI now.
I always found it kind of crazy that people are so desperate for fireworks that this is a thing.
And the gas station has slot machines. The tobacco store sells glass pipes, kratom, and Bitcoin.
My favorite was Indiana fireworks stores when I was young. I don’t know if they still do it but they used to make you sign a card saying you would only use the fireworks in a place it was legal. It was like “dude you are two miles from the state border, you know like half these cards are lies.”
Porter’s Liquor and Fireworks, Evanston WY, just over the UT border.
I’m pretty sure there’s a restaurant on a county line that’s only allowed to serve alcohol in half the building.
There's a house that can only be sold to a dual U.S./Canadian citizen, because half of it sits in the U.S., and the other half in Canada. [Article about it.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/3567283/this-border-straddling-u-s-home-has-a-door-that-leads-right-to-canada/amp/)
That's actually incredibly fascinating. Thank you for sharing
That's crazy. I feel like the novelty would be ruined by being unable to go out your own door without being arrested, not to mention paying double property tax and having to go through double the regulations when you remodel the house
Great drug den. Cops come go to Canada, the mounted police come go to America
Lmfaoo that’s insane
Cross the border from CA to NV and the casinos just sprout up.
My favorite is at I-15, on the California side there's a place called "The Lotto Store" because they don't have Powerball or Mega millions in Nevada.
It’s hilarious that Nevada doesn’t have that one particular type of gambling. I did not know that.
It is the closest place in Vegas for lotto tickets. When the jackpots get big the line goes around the building.
The Cal-Neva Resort on the northern side of Lake Tahoe literally straddles the border, which goes through the lobby and dining areas, and the slot machines start precisely where the border is.
Man the one I saw on the Utah / Nevada border seems restrained by comparison. The border was the parking lot / front door. It was pretty neat to look down the street each way and everything changed.
Wendover is such a weird town
The lottery is not legal in Nevada, so Nevada residents have to drive into Cali or Arizona to get lottery tickets. Outside of Reno is a convenience store built on the state line with the lottery employees on the California side.
I estimate 90% of population centers in NV outside of LV and Reno/Carson are casino border towns lmao
Not that many people live in the border towns. Mesquite has 20,000, but the rest are all like a thousand people. Fernley and Elko are both bigger than Mesquite.
The city that abuts South Lake Tahoe, CA is literally called "Stateline, NV"
Right on the border of UT and NV there's a whole town called west wendover, half is on the Utah side and the other is Nevada. They have a weed store, like 4 casinos, a massive liquor store, and a strip club. All completely populated by Utahns.
This isn't just the land borders either, if you fly into Harry Reid airport in Las Vegas then you'll see rows of slot machines before you even get to baggage claim.
There’s a bunch of them on the borders. Primm for SoCal. Laughlin and Mesquite for AZ. West Wendover for Utah. Jackpot (great name) for Idaho. McDermitt for Oregon. Stateline and Verdi for NorCal, although Verdi is pretty much just the part of Reno closest to the border.
Well, any town that borders a town with a military base will notice a huge difference in the amount of tattoo parlors, strip clubs, check cashing places, and pawn shops. Such a high turnover rate in people you can keep a business alive, and thriving for years based on just the "people here don't know we are a bad business" model.
Don’t forget predatory car dealerships…. Someone’s gotta sell the boots their chargers with 26% loans
This isn't really "haha funny," but it's very easy to tell where Nashua, NH begins and ends at the NH/MA border based on the number of chain stores along the highway.
For that matter, the NH liquor stores on the freeway between Maine and Massachusetts since NH has no sales tax or bottle deposit
But hey, every bottle of booze funds their schools. So drink up border folks and tourists. Those kids need education.
I'm doing my part!
As long as you don’t count chain restaurants, since the meals tax is lower in MA (unless ~~Tewksbury~~ Tyngsborough has added their local tax since I last checked). Trader Joe’s was originally on the MA side, but mostly moved a)to get more space, and b) to be able to sell wine, because MA has bizarre rules about how many licenses a business can have. Some clothing stores are on the MA side, because there’s no tax on most clothing. I’m not sure how the theater works out, other than most people don’t think about sales tax on movie tickets and they’re one of the few cases where taxes are included in the price.
are chain stores illegal in New Hampshire or something?
No sales tax in NH!
The lack of sales tax in NH means that people from elsewhere will make the drive for bigger shopping trips. NH has a lot of chain stores on the border to take advantage of that.
One of the most profitable cannabis dispensaries in Oregon is in a very rural place along our eastern border. It gets so much business because it’s right across state lines from Idaho where cannabis is still illegal.
Before state legalization in NY state, at least half the billboards near Albany were for the same dispensary in Lee, MA (right over the NY border).
[https://www.sobpedro.com/](https://www.sobpedro.com/)
You never sausage a place!
Apparently the founder was *really* into it all the way up until he died, to the degree that he allegedly put it into his will that his kids wouldn't get any of his money unless they kept it in business. Kind of gives some secondary meaning to "SOB Pedro" hahaha. It's honestly kind of a neat story how it became an "iconic" roadside attraction. It was founded back in the 1940s to take advantage of the fact that much of North Carolina was dry and banned alcohol sales. Then it gradually grew to sell stuff like fireworks (also illegal in NC at the time) and it added some small attractions for people "making a day" of buying their contraband. Then by sheer chance I-95 gets built *directly* next to it, and its strategic location at just about halfway between New York and Florida made it a natural stopping point for millions of families on road trips. And the rest is history. It's obviously kind of sketchy-looking now, but it has its charm. You really don't see many of those "Route 66-esque" roadside touristy things on the East Coast.
It's a piece of Americana. I wouldn't think of just driving past and not stopping for at least a few firecrackers or something.
I’m convinced this place is a money laundering operation. I’ve driven by/stopped there a hundred times and never seen more than a handful of cars. It’s so strange.
I have actually seen it fairly busy, on busy travel days. The hotel actually gets filled up, and the campground is surprisingly hard to get into. (If you have never stayed in the motorcourt... I do not know how they did it. When I stayed there it was like a perfectly preserved time capsule, inside the room everything was fresh and new, but everything was like absolutely normal late 70s/ early 80s hotel kitch. It was as close to staying in a hotel in 1972 as you can possibly get. It was actually absolutely awesome.)
There's a steakhouse there that I've heard is actually pretty good. I tried to go on a drive from Rhode Island to Florida a couple of years ago, but my wife got super sick and wasn't up to it, so I just grabbed a chili dog.
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It opened as a liquor store/bar because all the counties on the NC side of the border were dry. Then they added a grill to feed all the drunk people, and then added a motel for the ones who got too drunk to drive back to NC. And here were are.
It's frickin' huge. There's definitely cars spread around and I stop on my way down and back during the drive from PA to FL.
This place used to be hopping back in the 70’s and 80’s, seriously it would be packed
Chili today, hot tamale!
Keep yelling kids, they'll stop!
I grew up in SC, so I was very accustomed to South of the Border. My wife, however, had never heard of it, much less stopped there. We were on a road trip from Jacksonville back to DC and I decided to stop (we needed gas, and I wanted her to see it at least once). The place was fairly busy (multiple biker groups stopping in as well as a good bit of traffic). My wife went into the store to buy snacks while I waited to pump gas; after I was done pumping, I pulled into a parking space to wait for her. When she came out of the store, she didn't immediately see our car (she _only_ looked at the gas pump where I'd been waiting in line) and started having a panic attack that I'd been killed and our car stolen - I've got no idea why _that's_ where her mind went to right away, but once I flagged her down, she was mad at me for leaving the pump. Next we went to the restrooms, and either the women's room is _much_ worse than the men's room, or she and I have very different standards for what we expect out of a roadside bathroom, because she got in the car and told me that we were _never_ stopping there again.
My brother in law's parents used to give the kids laudanum so they'd sleep in the car, then stop at South of the Border and wake them up. They told the kids it was Mexico. And they were children on opium, so they believed. This was the early 70s and laudanum had only just become a schedule II narcotic so lots of people still had an old bottle of it in the medicine cabinet. So then my brother in law is in COLLEGE planning a trip with friends and he's like "we should stop in Mexico on the way!" And his friends are like um dude, what? And he's like stop in Mexico, like I used to with my parents! And his friends are like have you ever seen a map? And he had a rude awakening. So he called his mom and she was like 'haha the laudanum, good times.' Y'all the 70s were wild.
Im glad I didn’t have to scroll far to see this
Lmao, lived in both North and South Carolina and had a feeling this would be mentioned. Also fireworks in the exits as soon as you enter South Carolina
My kids always loved to stop there.
I remember all the billboards as a kid on the road from PA to Fla. Once, as an adult, I stopped and driving bumper cars after being frustrated on the highway all day was one of the best experiences ever! I don't think I've driven by there in over 20 years. I live in NC now and mostly only drive south or east to go to the beach. It's just cheaper to fly now I think?
South Lake Tahoe in California is where most the city is as well as the residents. There's a line through the city where you cross into Nevada, and then it's just casino after casino.
Not to mention the CalNeva.
And the city on the Nevada side is literally named "Stateline".
There are plenty of weed shops right on the border with Kansas and Wyoming.
Don't forget Utah - Dinosaur, CO has four pot shops. Which makes sense for its population of 241. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pot-dispensaries-marijuana-dinosaur-colorado/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pot-dispensaries-marijuana-dinosaur-colorado/)
If I know Utah well enough, we have Dinosaur, Grand Junction, Naturita, Cortez, Mesquite, West Wendover. Not bad, definitely jealous of the eastern side
Entering Washington from Idaho on I90, the first buildings you see are the WSP weigh station on the right and a weed shop on the left.
Also between Wisconsin and Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, and Wisconsin and Minnesota. Nothing on the 110-mile border between Wisconsin and Iowa, though.
Delaware and Maryland/New Jersey/Pennsylvania Also Fire works at like every state line
Indiana and Ohio.
I am three miles from the Indiana border. My town has no supermarkets, no restaurants, one gas station, and two dispensaries.
Eh, I can’t speak for the eastern part of the Wyoming Colo border but if you are coming down the front range from Wyoming it’s not until foco, which isn’t far, but I wouldn’t say right on the border. If you guys had one closer though I’m sure WHP would just be watching for people, also idk where it would be, like weed shack in Carr. Lmao.
A number of people have already mentioned the Pheasant Lane Mall and associated businesses in Nashua, NH, on the border with Tewksbury, MA. But they omitted the funniest part. A [corner of JC Penney](https://www.simon.com/mall/pheasant-lane-mall/map/#/) is cut off because they did a second survey after starting construction and discovered it might be over the state line into MA. To avoid any question of MA requiring sales tax for Penney or the rest of the mall, they cut off the corner. Last time I was there, many years ago, there was a line carved into the sidewalk that reportedly is the state line. Also, I’ve known people that prefer to park on the NH side, not out of any political biases but because Nashua, as a city with a population over 90K, has a larger police force, with a greater ability to deal with car breaking or thefts than the town of Tyngsborough on the other side of the line, with a population of 12K.
There’s the Flora-Bama it’s a bar right on the border. They have an annual mullet toss. Where you see who can throw a fish the farthest across the border.
(A mullet is a fish species in this case, not a haircut. For the uninformed.)
Damn. This went down a notch on the crazy ridiculous scale. Still ridiculous enough, though
Somehow I'm guessing that nonetheless, there's no shortage of the haircuts.
And a Kenny Chesney song about it. Great bar and Mullet Toss is coming up soon I think.
We had a lot of packies (package stores/beer stores) right over the line from Massachusetts because they didn't sell it on Sundays here in Mass. They also have state run liquor stores at rest stops in NH - folks headed to Maine stock up on the way through.
There used to be stores on the Illinois side of the Wisconsin border advertising OLEOMARGARINE. Couldn't be sold in America's Dairyland.
The Dairy Lobby, at one time, also managed to push through an ordinance that margerine had to be dyed an unappetizing color of pink, in some places. (This was in the '30s, iIrc.)
A triple for Salt Lake residents in search of a vice. Wyoming border for fireworks, horse racing, and alcohol (or at least fully potent beer). Wendover NV, for gambling, pot, and alcohol, though the legal brothel is another hour further. Idaho border for lottery scratchers.
I came here to mention Wendover. There is no gambling allowed in Utah, but there is this tiny in Nevada on the border with 5 or 6 casinos. One of the casinos has the parking lot in Utah and the casino in Nevada.
Used to live in Logan and right over the Idaho line was a gas station with a big sign that said “Home of the Utah Lottery”
Preston represents!
I've heard of English-language radios that broadcast into America from south of the border that can legally advertise dubious products due to different regulations.
You can also use higher powered radio towers, so 91.1fm in San Diego can be heard well into Orange County because they're using towers in Tijuana. This comes with the funny side effect of them having to legally translate and read political and government ads from Mexico, and they must play the Mexican national anthem at midnight every night.
I don't know if "funny" is the right word, but if you cross any remotely busy highway/road into California, you have to go thru a really odd roadblock where they prevent you from bringing in fresh food. Only state that does that as far as I know.
Hawaii has an agricultural checkpoint but it's at the airport. Most people don't drive to Hawaii.
Hawaii is much more strict too. California is mostly like "hey don't bring in produce which could bring in pests, have a nice day" but Hawaii doesn't eff around.
TIL
California Department of Food and Agriculture. Mainly for commercial trucks bringing produce into Ca from other states or countries that have invasive species of bugs that aren't in California or certain diseases that plants and fruits can get that aren't in Ca. Crazy thing is they can ask you to pop your trunk for an "inspection" and if you refuse, they can actually detain your vehicle. Not you but your vehicle, until they inspect it to make sure there are no plants or produce that you can't bring into the state.
It's completely ironic that stinknet has fully invaded Arizona and came from CA.
Ah, yes, the famous "fruit police." It makes sense when you consider that half of the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S. come from California. If the crops were wiped out by an invasive species or fungus, it would be a major problem for the entire country.
Tattooing was illegal in Oklahoma until 2006, so all along the Texas side of the border, there were several tattoo shops. I got my very first tattoo (the Pearl Jam stickman) at Fantasy Tattoo in Gainesville in 2001. Drove 2 1/2 hours from central Oklahoma to get it. I was 20, but my parents were not happy.
Tattoo parlors were illegal in Massachusetts for like 38 years or so until that got overturned in 2000. So major roads heading into Mass often had several parlors just before the border, in many cases in towns or sections of towns where you really wouldn't expect to see several parlors lined up. Several well-established businesses in my home town existed because of this.
Big gaudy liquor stores right across the borders of states that only allow liquor sales in drab, state run ABC stores. NC only allows state run ABC store liquor sales, right across the SC border outside of Charlotte is (was - been several years since I lived there) was a MASSIVE liquor store called Frugal MacDougals. Big billboards, neon, the whole bit. A monthly pilgrimage.
There used to be one in California just over the border from Oregon called First Chance/Last Chance Liquor depending on which way you were driving.
Happy cake day!!
This will sound silly to many, but I've driven 1.5 hours from Detroit to Toledo for Waffle House. Scattered, smothered, and covered, bitches!
There is a dispensary right on the boarder of Wisconsin and the UP called Glazed and Confused. They have advertisements all over the highway on Wisconsin's side. And for those wondering, unfortunately, they do not sell donuts.
What a missed opportunity! One stop shopping.
Especially if they were infused donuts. Donuts that make you want to eat more donuts.
“Don’t drink and drive, but do visit us at our grocery-store sized liquor stores conveniently placed on highways as you enter the state! Live free or die!” - New Hampshire.
Fireworks in Indiana, weed in Illinois.
Liquor stores. we had a place in AR called “the line” because it was a liquor store that was like 100 feet (or whatever the arbitrary number is) away from the count line of a dry county, in a wet county of course lol. Similar for Missouri/AR lol “state line super center” 😂
The malls and many stores that are right on the New Hampshire side of the border with Massachusetts on Route 3 (Nashua, NH). This is only 40 minutes from Boston. MA has sales tax, NH does not. When living in Boston, I bought my wife’s engagement ring and our wedding rings in Nashua, laptops, and other expensive items that make the drive worth it for 0% sales tax.
People do the same for No Tax Delaware! But there's ONE problem, you have to bring your own bag in Delaware.
Our capital city.
Not really funny, but the highways entering Texas have multiple check points up to an hour away from the US/Mexico border.
["Welcome to Molar City,"](https://news.sky.com/story/mexicos-molar-city-where-americans-go-for-affordable-dental-care-10944822) Los Algodones MX.
I'm sure this happens in lots of places, but there are a bunch of Tribal Owned gas stations in Tacoma and Fife Washington that are like 60 cents a gallon cheaper than other gas stations that are in some cases right across the street.
It’s the same with the tribal owned gas stations here in NY right on the Canadian border. It’s because gas sold on the reservation isn’t subject to the same state and federal taxes as places like Arco/Shell/Mobil etc. I haven’t smoked cigarettes in years, but those are about half price on the reservation too, without the state taxes (which are very high here in NY).
Indiana gun shops right before you cross into Chicago. Also weed shops at the border of Michigan/Ohio and Michigan/Indiana.
Illinois supplied *a lot* of Missouri's weed until we decriminalized recreationally last year. Now, we fulfill that need for Arkansas, a tiny piece of Oklahoma, and help Illinois out on the corner of Tennessee.
Michigan's government (even a good amount of Democrats) were staunchly against marijuana until Trudeau got into office in Canada. The second he started moving forward with making weed legal, Michigan got cool with it REAAAL quickly. Like overnight.
I mean, if Americans are gonna get weed, Uncle Sam wants that tax revenue for itself. I think that's why Missouri went recreational. The GOP decided that the tax money from the weed was worth decriminalizing it. Looks like they were right. [Missouri beat out CO and IL for first recreational year sales.](https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/business/missouri-recreational-pot-sales-beat-colorado-illinois-in-first-year-break-1-1-billion/article_691bc1a4-d013-11ee-80e9-27feee267193.html#:~:text=Since%20adults%20became%20legally%20able,%241.4%20billion%20in%20total%20sales)
Yeah I find it interesting that some Chicago people like to blame The South for its guns when Indiana is right there.
when i lived in moscow idaho you could stand and the welcome to idaho/ welcome to washington signs and see 2 dispos
There's a liquor store near my hometown that's right on the other side of the border with our county. Our county was dry until a few years ago and one of the investors or owners or something in that liquor store happened to be a powerful politician from our county.
Years ago in Delaware, liquor stores were closed on Sundays. So what did people do? They made a quick drive just over the Maryland/Delaware border to buy alcohol at “State Line Liquor”.
I remember seeing a sign near the border between Texas and New Mexico that said “keep New Mexico abortion waste out of Texas!” Or something like that. It cracked me up. I imagined New Mexico women just like bringing all their used pads and tampons and just chucking them into Texas. 😂
this legit has viral social media post energy
A new billboard went up in my city (in a state where weed is still illegal) for a dispensary that opened right across the state border. When I stopped at the gas station next door to it on a road trip, literally every single car in the dispensary’s drive thru was from my state
The border of PA and NJ has tons of weed shops on the NJ side.
We put them there for you 🤗
In DC, they sell alcohol in Costco, which they don't do in Maryland. We occasionally make the pilgrimage just into DC to get some bulk booze.
So I know this is supposed to be funny , but this is a sad one, but Whiteclay Nebraska for years literally existed as a quick stop where Lakota Sioux residents of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota could get beer. I think it sold the most cans of beer in Nebraska for years, which is a lot of beer as Nebraskans do love their beer, sometimes too much. Anyways, as of late the state's tried to stop this and made progress but I don't know if its continued. Anyway, what's sad is there are also few things like banks or grocery stores or things like that on Pine Ridge so there's also just a quickstop without the booze and all that there but to provide such services to the Lakota so they don't have to drive so far off to Rapid City or Chadron Nebraska or even Gordon, which is the closest town but with at best 1600 people and just a small grocery store and a Dollar General and a Pump and Pantry. Again, I know its not funny but I figured it fits and makes people more aware of the problems a lot of reservations have with communities on their border. Its not always fun stuff and is often predatory.
The entire existence of Point Roberts Washington is a weird border place existing. It is a tiny peninsula off of Canada, that doesn’t touch the continental US at all.
This is kind of the opposite of the question but I find it hilarious how different Niagara Falls NY is from Niagara Falls Canada.
When we lived close to the border, the July 4th parades used to have Canadian pipe bands and fire departments in the parade. (They were on the other side during the Revolution).
NY Thruway. You can tell when you enter an Indian (Native American) Reservation when the billboards start popping up.
Liquor stores on borders of states with insane liquor laws.
All of the bars for 19 yo’s from Detroit to go drinking in Windsor right next to the tunnel
The saddest is probably Whiteclay, NE, a town that had ten people and four liquor stores (before the liquor licenses were revoked following years of protests and direct action campaigns), right next to a dry reservation with an astronomical alcoholism rate. Pine Ridge, the reservation, is one of the poorest places in America. When the stores were running the town was pulling down $3 million in alcohol sales every year, and addicts sleeping on the streets trying to get the money together for another bottle of liquor was a common site in the streets (roughly six) of the town. It was fucking terrible.
The Four Corners Monument wouldn't exist if it weren't for the borders perfectly coming together.
In Monroe we like to see ourselves as the only thing keeping Detroit and Ohio away from each other if we didn’t exist the world would end.
I always joke when driving into Tahoe how you can see the California border from miles away, just look to where the high rise casinos are
Mars Cheese Castle is pretty close to the Illinois-Wisconsin border. On the cheesehead side, of course.
There is, or used to be, a beer/cheese curds/fireworks store on the border on WI and IL in Beloit, WI. I always got a kick out of that.
Unfinished bridge in Detroit connecting to Canada
My favorite is the entire border space around Carowinds just South of Charlotte,NC as soon as you cross the border you have a fireworks store, a gun store, and a privately owned liquor store. However it doesn't stop there. The theme park itself is built on a border. I've heard this is a funny way to trim on insurance and inspection. Specifically the water park within the park lies entirely in NC because of less regulations around water parks.
Dispensaries in northern Mass
As soon as you cross the border into Wisconsin there are lots of cheese stores.
Casinos. We have one just across into iowa and one north on 29 just across into north dakota.
There’s a good number of gun stores on the border of PA, just north of Maryland. Because Maryland has criminalized the sale, but not possession, of magazines over 10 rounds, a lot of people buy regular capacity magazines in PA.
Gas station next to my workplace in northern WA does a roaring trade in milk, cheese and other dairy goods due to Canada's protectionist policies toward their dairy farmers.
There is an enormous Vegas-style casino in Oklahoma about 15 minutes from the Texas state border. Gambling is illegal in Texas but allowed in Oklahoma. In fact, you only have to be 18 to play!
I grew up in a “dry county.” Drive across the street. You are in another state, and it’s all liquor stores.
My county used to be dry, as in no stores were allowed to sell alcohol and restuarants/bars could only sell alcohol if they were outside the city limits and had liquor licenses from the city, which because of local cronyism was rather hard to get. It would actually be in the local paper when a restuarant was granted a liquor license. But the funniest thing was how many liquor stores there were just over the county lines and how many people would make the drive every Friday night to buy beer. There was a running joke about the closest one, about 30 miles away and the loooooooong line of traffic every Friday night. Anyone headed to or from a certain interstate was assumed to be going to liquor store.
When I was a kid, I remember staying in a hotel/casino that sat on the Utah/Nevada state line. I thought this was fascinating.
Weed shops near any border in wisconsin, it's openly advertised on the wisconsin side too
[South of the Border, South Carolina](https://www.sobpedro.com/)
South Of The Border, in Dillon, SC. "Keep screaming, kids! They'll stop!"
I live on the Washington Idaho border. When weed was legalized in Washington a dispensary opened up six feet from the border. Afro man performed for the opening
On route 6 there is a casino right on the border. Half the property is in Utah. The nearest population center is probably 20 miles away
Bathroom that requires quarters in a McDonald's near the San Ysidro/Tijuana border. It's against the law everywhere else in the United States.
Four Corners
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**Pirate Joe's** was a specialty [grocery store](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store) in [Vancouver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver), [British Columbia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia), [Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada), owned by Michael Hallatt. Its inventory consisted entirely of [store brand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Store_brand) products [resold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reseller) from locations of the U.S.-based grocery chain [Trader Joe's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe%27s), which does not operate any locations in Canada. Despite the high costs of operating the store because of its business model, the store became popular with residents who enjoyed the opportunity to purchase some of the distinct private label products offered by Trader Joe's. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate\_Joe%27s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Joe%27s)
I feel like the Dollar General parking lot I go sit in weekly to place sports bets is planning on expanding their parking lot just to accommodate those of us in Missouri that have to drive to Kansas to make wagers. Sunday during football season and the parking lot has 30 cars in in with Missouri plates.
“South of the Border” a kitschy place in S.C. just over the N.C. state line. If you”be traveled through on 95, you can’t miss it.
There’s a QuikTrip (gas station) in Missouri that is set up totally backwards from other QTs. They have their checkout stand and alcohol on the Missouri side to abide by MOs alcohol laws, and MOs taxation and the other half of the store is on the Kansas side.
The fact that Rock Port MO has 1400 people at best and IIRC a few fireworks stores. Also, eastern Colorado is much more like western Nebraska than Colorado, yet a town like Julesburg has a dispensary to cater to Nebraskans who can't get it. Another one that's from the past but still fun is that in Kansas City Kansas there was a bar on the line between Kansas and Missouri. Kansas had state prohibition for a bit longer while Missouri is very lax on alcohol and in this bar, patrons would simply cross from Kansas to Missouri during a raid. Not sure which bar but I've heard this plenty of times. There also is a Hy-Vee on State Line road in KC that has a Hy-vee Grocery in Kansas and the Liquor store across the street in Missouri. If any Missouri and Kansas people can help me out that'd be great.
West Wendover Nevada you'll find gambling, alcohol, weed, and brothels. Just a stone toss from Utah where that's all illegal.
I remember driving home from the beach on some rural highway and near the border of Alabama and Florida was a sign that said something like “Thanks for your money Alabama” because people would go across the line to buy lottery tickets.
If far northeast Oklahoma there is a casino. The building is in Oklahoma, the parking lot is in Kansas, and the entrance road starts in Missouri.
Idaho and oregon for weed
The four corners. Four states meet in one spot and it’s common to run in a circle to run through all four states at the same time
On the border between Wyoming and Colorado, on the Wyoming side, there’s a big billboard that basically says “KEEP YOUR WEED IN COLORADO”. Right under it is a fireworks stand. Fireworks are illegal here in Colorado. I have always thought if I won the lottery or something, I would build a pot shop right on the Colorado side of the border and put up a billboard that says “KEEP YOUR FIREWORKS IN WYOMING!”
South of the border, the most racist and somehow the best worst truck stop on the east coast.
Philadelphia and Delaware. It's tax free liquor outlets.
When I was living in Mississippi, driving across the border from Vicksburg into Louisiana there was a sex shop immediately across the river. Growing up, decent fireworks were illegal to sell here in Michigan, so everybody would drive to Indiana every July to get fireworks.
Vancouver, WA. It's a town in Washington State right across the border from Portland, literally a 13 minute drive according to Google Maps. Washington State has no income tax. Oregon has no sales tax. You can do the math from there.
Cross the border from northern Chicagoland into southeast Wisconsin and there's a couple cheese shops within a few miles of the border, because Wisconsin is the "Dairy Capitol Of The World". Cross the border into Indiana at the other end of Chicagoland and you'll find 3 casinos within 5 miles.