Research on the Sale of Alcoholic Beverages in the United States

Monetary Policy is the procedure by which the financial expert of a nation, similar to the national bank or cash board, controls the supply of money. Regularly focusing on a inflation rate or interest rate to guarantee value solidness and general trust in

drinking laws) target sales of alcohol to minors and public possession of alcohol by minors.

The goal of this report is to inform the reader of the recent events that

In order to offer a viable platform in which restaurants can offer alcoholic beverages as part of their drink line, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has created a set of guidelines which establishments must utilize in order to initiate a more responsible service to the community. According to the TABC guidelines (2014) these guidelines should clear following national, state, and local laws when offering alcohol to patrons, such as ensuring that alcoholic beverage is only served to those over age 21 (checked if they appear to be under 30), a valid Texas driver’s license, or another valid identification must be used, and employees must refuse service to anyone that does not fit these criteria. However, there are also TABC guidelines (2014) which are state defined, such as the need to refuse service to anyone that appears to be intoxicated, prohibit employees from serving customers to the point of intoxication, offer mediation for intoxicated customers who wish to leave the premises in such a state, and adhere to the TABC certification regulations. A secondary goal, to this extent is also to meet the mixed beverage gross sales tax requirements at a rate of 6.7% after Jan.1, 2014 and 14% prior to Jan. 1, 2014, as well as the mixed beverage sales tax, which was implemented after Jan. 1, 2014. In order to draw more insight into the subject, the Olive Garden restaurant has looked up.

I. Introduction: Starting in 1970 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18. Another 8 reduced it to 19 or 20. However, these states noticed increases in alcohol-related fatalities among teenagers and young adults. As a result, of the 29 states that had lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By 1984, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic liquor. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. The states who raised it were given highway funding by the

The drinking age in America has changed multiple times throughout our history. In fact, there were no such things as mandates on drinking until 1851, when Maine passed the law on prohibition. Soon after, many other states followed in their footsteps. Congress first pressed the issue on the whole country in 1917, and the law was ratified two years later. In 1920, the government created the 18th Amendment, which officially banned everyone from the production, distribution, and consumption of alcohol. Throughout this entire time period, the demand for alcohol continued to thrive, leading to flourishing acts of bootlegging (Rotunda, 2004). It took years for the government to give up on this law, but it did finally happen. In the 1970’s, the government created a legal drinking age: eighteen years. This law worked pretty well for the country – still consisted of flaws, but nothing more than what we have today. Not until the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 did this change. With the passage of this act, individual states had the option of keeping the age

I am going to address the Oklahoma State Liquor Laws. The law specifically in question is section 534, chapter 3 of Title 37 in the Oklahoma Statues. The issue being that, in the state of Oklahoma, the sale of any alcoholic beverage that is over 3.2 percent alcohol volume by weight has to be sold at room temperature and cannot be sold in grocery stores or convenient stores. By law it can only be sold by state-licensed liquor stores. This means that the general public has to pay a higher mark-up for the alcohol purchased in these privately owned liquor stores and businesses. The law says that such drinks are to be sold only at room temperature. It is also illegal for the sale of higher alcohol content drinks on Sunday’s, on election days, and on holidays. Texas, on the other hand, makes the sales of all alcoholic drinks legal in grocery stores, convenient stores, and liquor stores.

Louisiana has the lowest rate of arrests for liquor law violations with a rate of 12 arrests per 100,000 in the population; South Dakota has the highest rate with 561 per 100,000 (Wagenaar and Wolfson 39). Despite these numbers of arrests through appropriate law enforcement, underage individuals are still able to access alcohol in many areas. In a recent study, underage males successfully purchased packaged beer in 97 percent of attempts in Washington D.C., 80 percent in Westchester County, New York, and 44 percent in Albany/Schenectady Counties in New York. A similar study found that underage youth were refused alcohol sales in only one-third of 100 establishments tested in eight sights across the United States (Wagenaar and Wolfson 38). It is believe that this perceived leniency in the enforcement creates an environment that enables binge drinking among those that are underage.

The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution gave states the right to control the transport and use of alcoholic beverages within its state bounds in the 1930’s. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, or TABC, is the state agency responsible for regulating the alcoholic beverage industry in Texas (The Organization). Texas state law grants the right to hold Local Option Elections. Local Option Elections allow localities (cities, counties) the opportunity to vote to choose whether to be dry, moist, or wet. This vote says what type of alcoholic beverages can be sold, and by what means they can be sold (What Are Local Option Elections?).

The macro environment surrounding alcohol sales and consumption has generally been stable and has experienced incremental growth throughout history. In the United States, the number of per capita consumption of alcohol has declined slightly, but has consistently remained around 2.5 gallons, per person, per year. The lower class, specifically females in the lower class are responsible for a majority of alcohol consumption in the United States. The highest per capita consumption worldwide is as follows: Luxembourg, Ireland, France, Hungary, and Denmark, (the US ranks 22nd.)  According to one article, “the beverage alcohol industry contributed over $21 billion directly to state and local revenues during 2010. Of that amount, distilled spirits accounted for over $8.8 billion or 41% of this direct revenue” (“Distillery Spirits”).

State control of alcohol distribution is just one of many benevolent government formulations that in the end does more harm than good to the people of Pennsylvania. In their naïve, paternalistic attempt to defend “moral virtues” and to “protect people from themselves,” our state government continues to ridicule the American ideals of free market competition and individual liberty. Consumers should have the ability to purchase any variant of alcohol that private stores are willing to sell at the market price at any time. Private stores should be able to compete freely to sell alcohol to customers, selecting their own hours and enforcing their own rules on the sale of alcohol at their discretion.

Monetary policy uses changes in the quantity of money to alter interest rates, which in turn affect the level of overall spending . “The object of monetary policy is to influence the nation’s economic performance, as measured by inflation”, the employment rate and the gross domestic product, an aggregate measure of economic output. Monetary policy is controlled by

In fact, the state and federal laws for consuming alcohol are different. “The federal law

The CTV Windsor reported that sixty-seven grocery stores across Ontario are now allowed to sell both domestic and imported wine. This will not only have a huge impact on the consumers, but also on the producers and the sellers of alcohol. In Canada, most province requires teenager to be at least 19 before he can purchase alcohol. In addition, there is also many limitations on the selling of alcohol. Alcohols do not get sold at supermarkets or convenience stores, instead, they have liquor stores around the nation to provide customers with the alcohols.

Other Political factors involve the tight regulations many countries place on mergers and acquisitions and monopolistic behaviour. In the last 10 years the alcohol industry has seen an unprecedented consolidation as the largest firms try to identify the most profitable segments of the fastest growing and most profitable new markets. This often leads to infringements with national regulations about competition and market monopoly, resulting in the sale having to be approved by a government agency.