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Denizens of half-pint condos in the Leather District win right to buy liquor in bottles to match
By adamg on Wed, 05/18/2016 - 8:01am
The Boston Licensing Board recently gave Sagarino's, 106 South St., the right to sell liquor in pint and half-pint bottles, after the store argued customers living in tiny units want the freedom to buy smaller liquor bottles to match their smaller storage space.
The store's argument won out over opposition from Mayor Walsh, who has continued Tom Menino's policy of opposing any expansion in the sale of liquor in smaller bottles. The store's attorney argued its clientele is pretty much exclusively people living in fancy nearby buildings, not the sort of people who would quickly suck down the bottles and then strew them about the street.
The board did continue its prohibition on the sale of even smaller nips at Sagarino's.
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Comments
Perfectly reasonable
Hurray for common sense. The homeless aren't going to flock to South Street to pay premium prices for 1/2 pints and the Leather District hipsters can buy their pints of Titos vodka and retire to their tiny abodes.
At $700/sq ft, I don't think many Leather District condos
are being bought by hipsters.
And the storage space argument is obviously hogwash.
Yes, people have a right to buy those bottles, and retailers have a right to sell them, but the excuse they're peddling to do so has nothing to do with common sense.
hipster
When exactly did this term become interchangeable with "human"?
It is not
Hipster can be interchangeable with DB Millennial but not human.
This seems like a really good
This seems like a really good compromise to me. I too live in a tiny one bedroom apartment, and I'm not a heavy drinker. I decided to have friends over for margaritas/tacos once and had to get a huge huge bottle of triple sec which I will probably now have for years (or will give to a friend or toss). I would have gladly took the half-pint size. People don't just toss half-pints on the street.
Yes, but that's not the argument the retailer was
making. Sure, it makes sense to buy little-used ingredients like cordials in smaller bottles. But the defense here is that the poor luxury condo dwellers need shorter bottles to save room, I guess so they can use that one shelf that is only tall enough to accommodate pint bottles (as if).
Even if this were the argument they were making, I doubt that most of the small-format sales will be of Chartreuse, Cointreau, and Allspice Dram. I don't know where you live, but I see pints and half-pints discarded on the street all the time. They're all rotgut vodka, shitty brandy, hobo-grade whiskey, and Fireball.
speak for yourself
I load up my mini-fridge with nips and bags of M&Ms and pretend I'm a highfalutin business man on a trip.
It's not the true hotel minibar experience if
you don't keep a Toblerone in there. I also like to leave a Andes mint on the pillow in hopes of forgetting about it and waking up with it stuck to my face.
hotel minibar
Nah its not a real hotel mini bar until you get the bill when you check out and realize that that can of Diet Cock you drank was 10 bucks!!
Freudian slip?
n/t
What a shame
I had higher hopes for Walsh, yet way too often his name pops up only when he's opposing/pimping something utterly ridiculous. Changing a decades old parade route on a whim? Giving one of the nation's biggest tax skipper (and one of the state's most penalized polluters) a sweetheart deal? Changing speed limits in the city because of a couple of accidents where the affluent live? And now I find it that he regulates what small businesses can and cannot sell on a license they've spent a ridiculous amount to procure? Perhaps he should be more focused on important issues like the walking dead that populate the area around BMC or the filthy, poorly maintained roadways that should be paid for with the funds steals from the citizenry via parking restrictions. Remember when you used to be able to park for free? Most people don't, and it's a shame. People don't realize just how far city government bends them over each and every day.
Patriots Parade
"way too often his name pops up only when he's opposing/pimping something utterly ridiculous. "
Don't forget pushing through that ridiculous parade for the Patriots in the middle of a major snow apocalypse, Making Boylston Street free of snow for tourists and suburbanites while the rest of us in the neighborhoods lived almost like refugees. That was near the beginning of his term and got him off on the wrong foot immediately.
Conflicted
I'm not sure whether to be excited for this because my office is less than a block away and we need nips at the end of tax deadlines, or whether this is convenient for grabbing a quick something when the trains are late.
Things that make you go "Hmmmmm....."
well
It does clearly say that nips are prohibited, so I'd say it's the latter. Half pints are like a really big nip, so tax time will be even more fun!
Tiny bathrooms
Are going to require CVS to start carrying tamping in 2-packs.
TRANSLATION:
We are losing the sales of the hard core alcoholic contingent who want a bottle large enough to hide inside a coat pocket!
Apartment size was a funny argument
But obviously not a valid one.
Total BS
I look forward to the day we can just be honest. This has nothing to do with a lack of storage space, and everything to do with adding sellable products. I'm sure the intention isn't to sell to 'homeless' or whoever buys half ppints and nips, but it is certainly about being able to increase the bottom line.
Those evil businesses, always
Those evil businesses, always trying to increase their bottom lines...
This makes sense
My husband and I don't drink liquor, but people sometimes bring it over when we have guests.
We currently have a bottle of Tanqueray sitting on the counter from Christmas 2013, and a bottle of whiskey from Thanksgiving 2014 in the fridge. The gin has been virtually untouched save for some experiment involving dipping cookies in it (apparently that's A Thing in Italy?) and the very expensive whiskey has been mostly mixed into hamburgers as flavor.
People don't *need* enormous amounts of liquor. It's potent!
I guess you don't entertain many people who drink.
I do, and like a homemade cocktail myself once in a while, too. So in fact, I *do* need enormous amounts of liquor. Out of frugality, I don't buy in bottles smaller than 750ml; nips, half-pints and pints are expensive.
Not always the case though!
If you're like me and like math more than is probably healthy, you'll notice that some places sell all their nips for a dollar. A nip is 50mL. So if a 750 of the same thing is more than $15, the nip is actually cheaper.
And sure, it isn't THAT much of a cost saver that I'd suggest buying all your alcohol this way and having 15 nips of vodka on your shelf instead of a bottle, but it can be kind of fun for parties where it's going to get used up. We once had an event at our house following a religious ceremony. We bought 100 99-cent nips, mostly vodka, rum, whiskey, etc., but also some funkier cordials and things. Then we bought large bottles of lemonade, iced tea, some sort of orange/pineapple juice, and filled up those big spigot iced tea jugs from the dollar store. People brought wine/beer/soda. It was pretty much like having a full bar except much cheaper and didn't need anyone to attend it, and people loved the setup. People who said they always just order rum and coke at events without a drink menu were having fun with it and suggesting to others that they try certain combos.
I'm an alcohol abuser
Like you.. not much of a drinker either. I have so many bottles of unopened or a shot or so missing from bottles. I think I have six bottles of vodka right now.
Beer is something else I do not drink. I have two six packs in my pantry that I bought last year for a party I went to (and ended up not going). The shit's expired and will just be tossed.
I see people's point about smaller bottles. I like a madres every so often, but I hate buying cranberry in a huge container. I will have one drink and then toss the rest (usually a few weeks later)
(and abuser meaning I throw out good alcohol often..)
Get rid of that beer!
Spirits last indefinitely, but beer does not. Pour it down the drain and go get back your 5¢ per bottle/can.
My Gawd!!!!
A LIQUOR store wants to sell small bottles of liquor! Don't they know the morally correct way is to drive to a liquor store and buy your booze in mega handles and cases! This is the way normal, law abiding moral citizens buy their booze!
HURUMPHHHHHH.....SNORT!
I think you should buy your booze in whatever size
bottles you want to. But if you're a retailer, don't try to tell me that your customers need to buy pints or half-pints because they don't have the room in their small condos for bigger bottles. That's patent bullshit.
When we have ridiculous laws and ordinances
it only makes sense that we think up ridiculous reasons to bypass said ridiculous laws and ordinances.
I really do buy small bottles
I really do buy small bottles of booze because I don't have space. I want a decent selection in my tiny liquor cabinet rather than 2 big bottles. But my home is significantly tinier than the ones we're talking about in this article...
Have you worker in a liquor store?
If so, where? What's this creepy obsession many around here have with scary alcoholics buying nips?