Here in California you can buy alcohol in supermarkets, specialist liquor stores, and pharmacies. However, in other parts of the US the sale of alcohol is far more restricted, as this story from the Wine Spectator illustrates. In New York you can buy beer in regular supermarkets, but wine and spirits are only sold in liquor stores; which greatly restricts the purchasers options.
There are eighteen states that maintain some type of monopoly over sales of alcohol. New Hampshire, for example, allows Beer and Wine to be sold normally, but spirits are sold only from state run stores.
