What do you call the place you purchase adult beverages? Is it a liquor store or a package store? Package store is common in the Northeast, while folks in Milwaukee know it as the beer depot, and Pennsylvanians might call it the ABC store. Tell us your preferred term! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Where Do You Buy Alcohol?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Becky. I’m calling from Connecticut.
Well, hello, Becky. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Becky.
Well, I have a question for you. It has to do with the all-important need to purchase adult beverages.
Okay.
So, I’ve lived in Connecticut my entire life, but I have done a little bit of traveling. And I was visiting a friend down in South Carolina, and I thought, I’d like to get a nice bottle of wine for dinner. So I asked, you know, where’s the closest package store? And she looked at me like I was crazy and proceeded to give me directions to a FedEx store.
And I’ve also come across this problem. You know, at work, I have a lot of coworkers that are from out of state, and they’re equally puzzled by the term package store. Now, I have always understood that the place that you purchase wine, beer, any type of alcohol is called a package store. So I’m assuming it has to do with our weird liquor laws in Connecticut. But I was just wondering where this term came from, and is it just unique to Connecticut or New England? If you could help me out, that would be great.
No, sure, yeah.
Sure, Becky. Now, you’re in Connecticut, right?
Yes.
Yeah, so I’m not at all surprised that you use that because it is particularly used in New England. In the Northeast.
Yeah, Northeast, Massachusetts, a Paki store.
Yeah.
Or just the Paki? Do you ever call it just the Paki?
Oh, absolutely. We’ll say something like, I’m making a Paki run. Do you need anything? Or I’m going to run to the Paki store. Or, you know, what do you need? What can I get you?
And it is odd that all around the country there are different terms for these kinds of places. I mean, we called it the liquor store growing up. Not that we went to it because we were Southern Baptists. But in Milwaukee, it’s the Beer Depot and places like that. And it just has to do with the fact that you’re buying alcohol, but you’re not consuming it at that particular establishment.
Right. There’s no bar, no stools, no taps.
Right? You’re just buying stuff that’s prepackaged for purchase.
Yeah. You’re just buying that wine in the box and carrying it under your arm. So the assumption is that you won’t be staggering out of the building drunk. Package stores aren’t unknown throughout the rest of the countries, but it’s not so, how shall I put this, well-known. And paki, for certain, is one of those terms. If somebody uses it, they’re from the Northeast.
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s a shibboleth, isn’t it?
Now, in the part of the country where I come from, Missouri, you’ll sometimes find drive-thru package liquor stores. Those are different.
Oh, wow.
None of those here.
Yeah.
That’s better than a drive-thru. If somebody said liquor store, I mean, I would understand what they’re talking about, but it would seem so weird. And like, package store. It’s a package store.
Oh, really?
Really.
That’s cool. I remember being in Pennsylvania and somebody was talking about going to the ABC.
I remember.
Yeah, the ABC store. Same thing. It’s odd. There’s some words like that that just are different all around the country.
Or the world. I remember standing in line at the state-run liquor store in Sweden.
Yeah.
The only place you can buy liquor at the time were these stores owned by the government.
Yeah, what do they call it, the bottle shop or the bottle-o?
I think my Swedish is terrible, but systembolaget or something like that.
Oh.
That sounds like you might say if you drank too much. We have a difficult relationship with alcohol, and it comes out in our language, doesn’t it?
Thanks for calling, Rebecca.
Well, thank you very much.
Take care. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
