Holidays in Utah…Do You Know Where Your Liquor Is?

By Amy Seigel, 12-25-06

It is that time of year again. Time for holiday parties and festive dinners laden with Christmas hams, Hanukkah latkes, Kwanza cookies, New Years nogs, and, of course, all the beer, wine and spirits we can drink. And for those Utahns who are looking forward to ringing in the New Year with something a little harder than sparkling apple cider, this can also the time of year for venting frustrations at the state’s department of Alcohol Beverage Control. Although the state has a list of new, bigger stores it’s planning on opening over the course of the next several months, Utahns will still be forced to endure the ever-present 64.5 percent markup on liquor, wine and beer, in addition to our over-crowded, and inconveniently or often un-locatable liquor stores.

Hide and Seek

In the broad scheme of things, Salt Lake City has it pretty good when it comes to locating liquor. Utah’s capital contains 17 of the 37 or so state-controlled liquor stores. Seventeen liquor stores may not seem like an overwhelming number for a metro area of around 1.2 million people, and it’s true—they’re not exactly on every corner, and they’re not exactly easy to find either. Because liquor stores are run by the state, they are not allowed to advertise and thus cannot legally be listed in the Yellow Pages. So if you’re new to the area, or just happen to be shopping for your New Years’ bubbly in an area of town you don’t frequent, good luck locating the nearest booze barn. It was only while researching information for this article that I finally discovered (after several years living in Salt Lake) where liquor stores are listed…in the blue pages, the government section of the phone book, just below the Air National Guard recruiting office.

According to an article in the Casper Star-Tribune, every year around the holidays the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control receives numerous calls from Utah locals unable to locate their nearest liquor outlet. Larry Lunt, chairman of the state alcoholic beverage commission, thinks this indicates a major flaw in the state’s liquor store logic. “To be able to find a liquor store is a reasonable accommodation,” Lunt told the Star-Tribune, “People don't look in the blue pages for liquor stores. They shouldn't have to call this office to find out where a liquor store is.”

However, since there are plenty of staff members and commissioners of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control who believe that the goal of the department should be to better inform the public and not to promote alcohol, it may be an uphill battle to get the few liquor stores we do have listed in a more obvious location. According to the Star-Tribune, commissioner Mary Ann Mantes has suggested putting a line in the Yellow Pages referring people to the government listings. Although previous suggestions along the same lines have not been successful, commissioners have agreed to revisit the issue in January.

Big City Blues

The state’s exploding population is forcing the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to expand their meager offerings—new, bigger, stores are planned for Saint George, Riverton, Harrisville, and Salt Lake City, and remodels are set for other sites in West Valley, Kimball Junction, Taylorsville, Bountiful, Ogden, and Holladay. However, as is probably to be expected, not everyone is thrilled about these new additions. The Riverton City council just recently passed a resolution intended to block the opening of a new liquor store in the area, and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control voted unanimously last week to scrap plans for a new store in Saint George due to its proximity to Dixie State College. And while the state is going to proceed with plans to open a new store in Riverton despite the community opposition, Saint George may have to wait a while for their second liquor outlet.

It is not hard to imagine that the religious tendencies of the vast majority of Utah residents may have something to do with the massive community opposition to these newer, better, bigger liquor stores. However, it seems that tea-totaling Utahns are keen to use “location” as a nice smokescreen for their general objections to the opening of these new stores. It took the liquor control commission some 20 tries to select an “appropriate” site for the new Riverton store, and the proposed Saint George store met its doom as a result of its proximity to Dixie State College.

According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Dixie State College President Lee Caldwell led the opposition to the proposed Saint George site. Apparently, although the proposed site for the new store fell well outside the minimum radius from the school (as specified by city and state ordinances), Caldwell felt that its proximity would hinder the college’s attempts to ditch its “party school” image. In a letter to the liquor-control commissioners, Caldwell wrote that “Building a liquor store a few blocks from campus would be a deterrent to overcoming a damaging perspective of Dixie State College.”

In response to these and other concerns from Saint George citizens, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission decided to scrap the plans for the new store for the time being. This means that for now, along with many other Utah residents who don’t happen to live in very close proximity to one of the state’s few liquor outlets, the alcohol-drinking population of Saint George will have to continue battling cross-town traffic and crowds of like-minded beverage seekers to obtain their holiday libations.

And while it seems that Utah is indeed on its way to realizing that prohibition ended some 73 years ago, it may be a while yet before its residents can eat, drink and be merry with the same ease as the folks in the other 49 states of the union. My recommendation: plan ahead, buy that New Year’s booze early, and make this year’s resolution one that will mean you will never again be at the mercy of the state’s arcane and illogical liquor laws—teach yourself the art of the homebrew.

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