This is not a bash the North thread.

[Chan790]

111. Blue laws.

The same reason places that sell liquor in CT and MA are called "package stores" (or "packies" for short)...both states had blue laws well into the 1950s that prohibited retailers advertising in name, window displays or advertisement that they sold alcohol. It was also illegal to carry in public even an unopened container. (So, the stores took to the name "package store" because whatever they sold you had to leave the premises in packaging, whether a box or a bag. In short order, the name stuck and a sign reading "package store" became a sort of legalized codeword for "liquor store" that has outlasted the state law by almost 70 years.)

It's only been legal to sell alcohol on Sundays for about 15 years now in CT. (The same law that permitted grocery stores to sell beer and wine still expressly forbids them alcohol sales on Sundays. Bars in CT are required to serve food if they're open on Sundays. CT has weird alcohol laws.) It's still illegal to buy alcohol out of state and transport it into CT to circumvent state distribution laws, even if you report it and pay the tariff. They set up checkpoints at the state border to randomly check cars some weekends.

Pretty much everywhere in the state of CT, this is a common sight:

(Photo Credit: E&J Package Store in Bridgeport, CT)

I have no idea why so many packies are in converted houses, particularly in the rural parts of CT...but they are.

Edit: This has caused no end of headaches for UPS as their retail locations are called "UPS Package Store" and they're not package stores. Likewise, I've been given directions when traveling out of state to everything from Post Offices to Kinko's to Staples because I've forgotten that I need to ask for directions to a "Liquor Store" instead.