Visiting the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Store in North Carolina is the final challenge in the “21-Year Old Gauntlet” – the list of naughty things to do by the age of 21 that many college students in North Carolina attempt to complete. Other notches include visiting a strip club, buying a pack of cigarettes, and shooting a gun. However, few know what the ABC Stores’ principles are or where the profits go.
“I’m just about to get ****-up tonight,” junior William Saunders claimed, as he confidently slapped his ID on the counter. “It’s about time.”
While a “shockingly” small number of 21-year-olds (78 percent, according to the National Institutes of Health) have consumed liquor-based drinks before the legal age of 21, few legal drinkers know why the store is called “ABC” or what its purpose is.
“Alcohol Beverage Company? I don’t really know, we just call them package stores up north,” Bret Jones, a junior business major said.
ABC Store patrons may have noticed the posters located near exits, breaking down where ABC profits come from and go to. The poster, located in ABC Stores as well as the local ABC Web site, meckabc.com, explains how the county and state benefit from the sales.
N.C. state laws established ABC Boards in 1948. Each county, after deciding whether or not it will be “dry,” forms its own board, independent from other boards. Each board is self-contained and only receives funding from its sales. All ABC Stores throughout the state adhere strictly to these laws, which include hours of operation, quarterly prices, and rules delineating what individual boards may do with profits.
ABC laws state that before distribution costs, 7 percent of profits must go to alcohol education programs. Mecklenburg County’s five-member ABC Board, appointed by the county commission to two-year terms, spends $500,000 of its $2.38 million alcohol education funds on grants to local non-profit organizations designed to prevent or treat substance abuse. The maximum amount for each grant is $25,000.
“The grant selection process is thorough and based on need, and recipients must adhere to strict contracts,” ABC Director of Alcohol Education Mary Ward said. “They report to the Board regularly.” The Board monitors use of the grants and rescinds the funds if recipients fail to stick to their contracts. However, the programs rarely fail, and the Board recouped funds in only a small number of instances throughout its history.
The Board dedicates the remainder of the education funds to Anuvia, a nonprofit chemical dependency treatment facility under contract with the county. Anuvia diagnoses and treats substance abuse, assists “dual-diagnoses” (mental health issues compounded by substance abuse), and offers outpatient treatment and prevention.
State law also stipulates that 5 percent of profits before distribution, $1.7 million from last year, must be dedicated to alcohol law enforcement.
“We have 13 officers tasked by the county for training, preventing underage drinking, and monitoring over 3,000 locations in Mecklenburg that sell alcoholic beverages,” Ward said. Those officers operate independently from other law enforcement agencies, including the Alcohol Law Enforcement division, and receive no funding beyond what the ABC Board allots.
ABC laws have remained largely unchanged since their creation in 1948, and require state legislation in order to be altered – which explains why the store is closed on Sunday, the busiest shopping day of the week. “We don’t have the ability to change those laws,” said Ward. State legislators have seen no reason to alter the blue law.
“But we exist for a reason. We realize that people have shopped in other markets, but because of state regulation, we can control the prices and give back to the community,” Ward said, explaining that 11 percent of the profits go to Charlotte-Mecklenburg libraries.
“We’re doing the best we can to serve. It’s our goal to provide shoppers with fair prices as well as a safe, clean shopping environment for our area.”
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