It's ridiculous that we have an ABC Board, and their stupid stores, to begin with. Do you realize many other states allow you to pick up your liquor at the grocery store? What is the State of North Carolina protecting us from, and why do they think it's their place to protect us?
Give me a break. They can't even figure out that it's unethical to chow down on a liquor company's tab. (Oh, and guys, giving the money back doesn't make taking the bribe any better.)
Mecklenburg County's liquor board has some explaining to do. The ABC Board is trying to explain to state regulators at the ABC Commission why it was OK for dozens of them to take expensive steak dinners from a leading liquor wholesaler.North Carolina is unique among the states in giving local ABC boards a monopoly on liquor. So if liquor wholesalers want their brands to get more shelf space in local stores, the distributors have to convince local ABC board members and employees, who are public officials, to stock more of one brand than another.
Two weeks ago one of the biggest liquor wholesalers doing business in the state, Diageo, treated at least 28 Mecklenburg ABC officials and spouses to drinks and dinner at Del Frisco's, one of Charlotte's best steak houses.
Read the rest of this MSNBC/ NewsChannel 36 story, by Stuart Watson, here.
WRAL has been on this story for a while. You really need to watch these videos: