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skiur

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Actually in NJ even beer and wine can only be sold in liquor stores. They're not sold in grocery stores in NJ. So that's the perspective I'm speaking from.

Not true, at least in Bergen county you can get beer wine and booze in the supermarket.
 

cdskier

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Not true, at least in Bergen county you can get beer wine and booze in the supermarket.

I live in Bergen county. Technically those stores have to have a liquor license and are considered full liquor stores (legally they usually have a separate entity actually "own" the liquor portion of the store as well. For example at Fairway in West Paterson and Paramus, it is "Fairway Wines & Spirits" for the liquor portion). So if there was a "closure" of liquor stores in NJ, it would apply to the ability of those stores to sell it as well most likely. Also few and far between in how many grocery stores in NJ have liquor stores inside. It is very limited compared to other states where virtually any grocery store can sell at least beer and/or wine. Other than the Fairway examples, I'm struggling to come up with many other grocery stores around me that even have liquor stores attached. The two closest Shop-Rites both have a "Shop-Rite Liquors" in the same strip-mall, but not within the grocery store itself.
 

BenedictGomez

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I live in Bergen county. Technically those stores have to have a liquor license and are considered full liquor stores

Ahhhh..... okay.... born & raised in Jersey so I kindof figured that was Fake News. lol

The Wegmans in Bridgewater is like that; it has a liquor license, and all the alcohol products are at one end of the store, which is "the liquor store".
 

jimk

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They sell regular strength beer and various IPA's, etc. in Utah grocery stores now. This is something new in the last year, but beer only, no wine. On March 13, 2020 I went into a Utah state liquor store to get a bottle of white wine to drink with a home cooked salmon dinner my wife planned to make. There were 200 people in the checkout line! Fuhgeddaboudit.
I went grocery shopping and came upon another state liquor store with a much smaller crowd and got my one bottle. That was the day I first noticed some panic behavior in the general public in Utah. Now most stores are just empty, although someone keeps sneaking into the grocery stores and grabs all the toilet paper:grin:
 

kingslug

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Utah seems to be a great place to live ...ive always wanted to move there..now more than ever...hiking around there would be a great way to spend days..
Never been there in the summer..have to go when this is over...
 

cdskier

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Ahhhh..... okay.... born & raised in Jersey so I kindof figured that was Fake News. lol

The Wegmans in Bridgewater is like that; it has a liquor license, and all the alcohol products are at one end of the store, which is "the liquor store".

Yea...sounds like how Fairway does it. I've been to that Wegmans for lunch, but never even realized it had a liquor store. Whole Foods in Paramus is another example I came up with "locally". They have a liquor store within the store (although they actually spread it out quite a bit in the store...bit surprising they can get away with it not being as contained as the other examples).
 

Glenn

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WFH starting today. (Had yesterday off) We'll probably split out time between CT and VT just to change our scenery.
 

jimk

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Utah seems to be a great place to live ...ive always wanted to move there..now more than ever...hiking around there would be a great way to spend days..
Never been there in the summer..have to go when this is over...

A few quick thoughts (trailboss could say a lot more than me) :
every place has it's pros and cons. obviously good snow is a pretty big pro out here if you're a skier/boarder. a con out here is that it's dusty in the SLC suburbs, we're on the edge of a desert and the water from melting snow in the mtns is the only reason humans originally settled here. They have car wash joints all over the place.

i'm an average to light alcohol person, rarely drink hard liquor (had some schnapps last night that I usually save for apres-ski with friends) so I've never been bothered by any limitations on that stuff in Utah. Seems like restaurants have any alcohol I'd ever want. I've never attempted to go to a night club out here. Not even sure if they have them or what the alcohol rules are there?

the economy is good here now, but it can be more volatile than bigger cities like NYC, Boston, San Fran, LA, etc. They were hit pretty hard here by 2008 recession, while in Wash DC area we barely had a hiccup. But I'm retired on a pension, so economy's kind of moot for me. Produce is cheap and good here, some other groceries a little higher than back east.

if you're into lots of cultural stuff (plays, concerts, ballet, great museums, etc) that might be a con out here, but vegas has some of that and it's about 5 easy hours away. if you're into nature/outdoors that's a plus here. although nature is great in new England too, it's just different and new here if you're a lifelong east coaster like me.

housing is going up here, but still a third or half what it is in major east or west coast cities. one mil gets you a mansion with 100 mile view here, in Wash DC it gets you a midsize 75 year old fixer-upper enclosed by the same.

weather in SLC burbs is similar to wash dc except 50 degs feels like 60 out here and two days a week all winter you see people at Walmart in shorts and tshirts. it snows more than dc, but it usually melts quick and the airport is 10 miles out in the desert and almost never closed for bad weather/snow. In five years of frequent visits there was only one January where I noticed smog inversion for a lengthy period over the city. but it does happen.
 
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Hawk

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I was working in Boston up until yesterday. Charlie Baker ended that. Where I am it was not a big deal. There were only 8 of us on my floor that were left. needless to say social distancing was easy. For the most part my wife and I spend very little time indoors if we are not working. De-thatched, fertilized and over seeded the lawn Saturday and Sunday. Cleaned up all the perennial beds. Took off the burlap and winter protection off the bushes. fertilized the roses and other flowering bushes. Put in some manure and turned the vegetable garden. My mountain bike group has not stopped all winter here on the coast. It has been great riding with no snow except for 3 weeks in January and even that was no big deal. We are still riding this week with large social distancing. We keep at least 20 - 30 feet on the trials and even in the parking lot. Beach walks with my wife have been a new development but she really likes it. I'm not much for waling and always opt for the bike. We are very experienced at a variety of cooking styles and that has also been fun to use with no restaurants. Plenty of mixed drinks, wine, beer and general booziness. What else can you do? But get out of the house. It makes you feel so much better.
 

BenedictGomez

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They sell regular strength beer and various IPA's, etc. in Utah grocery stores now.

I hate this Utah specific term. There's no such thing, and Utah's alcohol content is still the lowest in America. You can even brew a proper IPA & sell it in Utah without lowering the alcohol content, even with the revised upward content. Nor you can have a home keg system. That state needs alcoholic's revolution.
 
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Hawk

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I don't understand your comment. What is it that you hate about that term? So are you saying that Budweiser sold in Salt lake has the same alcohol percentage as Budweiser sold in NY?
 

BenedictGomez

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I don't understand your comment. What is it that you hate about that term? So are you saying that Budweiser sold in Salt lake has the same alcohol percentage as Budweiser sold in NY?

It's a complete misnomer. There's no such thing as "full strength" beer (or sometimes "strong beer") as you read about it in Utah newspapers regarding this issue. A friggin' Budweiser is not the global alcohol content standard for what constitutes real beer. Far from it if you know anything about beer or are someone who enjoys craft brewing, microbrews, and decent beer versus mass produced garbage.
 

BenedictGomez

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Never been there in the summer..have to go when this is over...

It's actually quite nice, I did my honeymoon there in 2018 (1 week in Moab, 1 week in Park City). I was impressed with how much free outdoor summer recreation there is in the PC area, hundreds of miles of bike trails, fishing, hiking galore, it was great.

Did quite a bit of hiking atop Deer Valley & near Brighton, visited some of the mountaintop ponds etc. Only thing that I imagine would be frustrating as a local is how short it is; between mountain melt-out & terra firma to significant snowfall again I imagine is only 4 months tops. The valley recreation would be much longer though, but anyway, we really loved it.
 

kingslug

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Ive hiked all over the east coast but find the Dr ock formations,canyons more facinating in utah..from what ive seen going there for over 20 years in winter..
Its the only place ive felt drawn to..
In a but of a funk now..have to get outside more..wander around my property a bit..
 

jimk

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Yeah, I guess I have vague notions of getting a condo in Park City instead of mooching off my son, but a SLC local has cautioned me that the winters are a lot longer there than in the SLC valley and you're just as close to good or better skiing from down in the valley.

My unsophisticated solution to the formerly weak Utah supermarket beer was to drink 16oz cans:beer:
And IIRC the weak stuff was priced a little lower than the identical brand regular stuff I'd drink back east.
 

kingslug

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Ive gotten quite smashed for many years there drinking whats available...just dont ask for a properly made old fashioned...learned that the hard way at the cliff lodge
 

BenedictGomez

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My unsophisticated solution to the formerly weak Utah supermarket beer was to drink 16oz cans:beer:

Yeah, of the times I've been to Utah, you need to order from cans to get the better beers, which is ironic (and sad). Hopefully as more people move there some of those ridiculous laws will go the way of the Dodo. At least that Zion Barrier or Zion Curtain thing's gone. The first time I was to Utah was 2016, and I was flabbergasted that that was an actual thing.
 

EPB

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Successfully made a run to my local Hanover, NJ Wegmans. The "independently owned" liquor store inside the supermarket that happens to accept Wegmans cards and employs people with Wegmans clothes was very much open for business.:beer:
 
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