Inside Seattle’s State Liquor Store 1971
September 6th, 2010 @ 12:15 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure |
You never know what images posted here on Vintage Seattle people will appreciate. It may say that readers here are as detail oriented and exhaustive as I am, but whatever the reason
Interior of a st ate liquor store in Seattle. Circa 1971. Photo by Ron Allen, courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
And one again I’ll be the first to comment! That photo could be 1971 or 2010!
No way… that had to be taken last week!
Last week? I don’t think so. Look at the cash register with no appendages for swiping credit/debit cards. I’m also guessing that an expert in such things might be able to date some of the ceramic whiskey decanters: the mountie, the beefeater, etc. You also don’t see any of the little “airplane” bottles or any of the designer vodkas that are stocked by all the liquor stores nowadays.
I agree with all of the above. It could be today, but there’s no lottery scratch tickets, no “under 21?” etc.
These were the days that I as a little kid could go into the liquor store with my mom and marvel at the bottles of booze. Also, a must to stop at if you needed moving boxes!
Little kids can’t go in the liquor store with their parents anymore? I mean, obviously they won’t let kids buy stuff there, and never did. I remember going in with my dad when I was a kid and being sad I couldn’t hand the cash to the cashier there, as I would at the QFC. But I could certainly be in there with him.
Oh well — after this fall, such liquor stores may very well cease to exist —
Yes, kids can still go in the liquor store.
That’s sure a lot of creme de menthe in stock! I will echo everyone else in that it could almost be a modern photo.
It would be interesting to have a closer look at the wine section. In 1971, when I had only been of legal drinking age for a few years, wine was not “in” at all. There was no local wine on the shelves. Everyone, including us young adults, drank the hard stuff or local beers like Rainier and Olympia (no Coors, no Corona, and no microbrews, either). Domestic wine would have been mostly jug wine like Gallo, Tavola and Cribari, with a few nicer things from the Napa Valley. Also Mateus Rose, Liebfraumilch, Thunderbird, Ripple, Boone’s Farm, and the ever-popular Mogen David. The bad old days.
Neat! My grandma was store manager for many years in the Auburn store. I remember visiting her at work sometimes and playing in the back room with my cousins and buying candy at the convenience store next door. To my dismay, I got kicked out of the liquor store when I was 20 for tagging along with a friend, I never knew minors were not allowed in!
In the mid-1970s my friends and I used to drive up to Vancouver B.C. from Seattle soley to buy Guiness Stout which we smuggled back by the caseload. Liqour stores here didn’t carry it — maybe because the label stated: “Guiness Is Good For You.” We agreed….
I noticed the “Rye” section next to the “Blends” section. I don’t think that’s something you see at a WSLS these days. When was the last time you heard someone order a shot of rye at a bar? It’s all bourbon or JD in the yankee whiskey world.
And howzabout that ashtray visible in the security mirror near the A/C unit!
The days when a half gallon was an actual half gallon
OK, now I’m curious: what quantity is a half-gallon these days????
For liquor bottles, it’s now 1.75 liters. For milk… it’s still a half gallon!
Was it 1971 or 1972 that we started being able to buy beer on Sundays after 12PM(unless it was Blaze’s Broiler in Ballard, which stuck to the Blue Laws until the 80′s)? I used to love pulling off I-5 at 45th, & hitting the liquor store next to The Moon(and grabbing mixers at Goldies- the namesake of Goldies on 45th)
This is a glaring example of what is wrong with our liquor system today. Most stores still look exactly like this. Pathetic.