Who remembers store brand beer?

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Edric Floyd
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Post by Edric Floyd »

I do remember the generic "no frills" brand that Pathmark sold in New York (early 1980's) Everything that was "no frills" had a plain white wrapper with black lettering. On some there was a red and blue stripe (the pathmark colors)

Yes, they did sell "no frills" BEER! Plain white can with capital letters in black...BEER

I have no idea how it tasted since I have never had ANY alcoholic beverage of any kind ever in my life. (Subject to have changed if I had stayed with my former employer LOL)

But I do remember how my grandmother screamed at my grandfather whenever he brought a case of that beer home. 79 cents a six-pack! My grandfather was probaby the only person I knew that would drink that stuff.
rich
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Post by rich »

Ralphs used to have their own Vodka, too. Liquor stores still often have house brand cheap liquor.
TheQuestioner
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Post by TheQuestioner »

Growing up, I never saw Generic Beer or house brand beer, or any other alcohol, for that matter, in supermarkets. The DC suburbs in Maryland have some rather harsh and unusual restrictions on alcohol sales. I believe Montgomery County limits chain stores to ONE liquor license, so there would often be a single location of a supermarket or other store that had alcohol, though I believe even this it was limited to beer and wine, no hard liquor. Had to go to an actual Liquor Store for that.

I can only assume that Virginia or other DC-area municipalities have or had more lenient laws, because I have seen images of Dart Drug brand beer online, and Dart was pretty much a DC-only chain.

When I moved to CA, it blew me away to see hard liquor in places like Safeway. I still chuckle when I think of seeing "Lucky Rum" on the shelves of Lucky. Yeah, I bet you felt real lucky after a few rounds of that!
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Dave
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Post by Dave »

TheQuestioner wrote:... I can only assume that Virginia or other DC-area municipalities have or had more lenient laws...
There were instances of store brand beer in Virginia, like Tudor and Brown Derby, but I don't recall ever seeing any branded with the store name. Virginia's ABC laws can get sort of quirky and were very quirky in the past. They used to be very uptight about advertising and anything that might be construed to encourage alcohol consumption. Back in the '70's, the state wouldn't approve one brand of malt liquor for sale in the state because the can was a solid red color (I can't recall if it was Miller Malt Liquor or one of the Busch brands). The ABC Board felt that the color was too aggressive.

They also prohibited any neon signs, store displays, or advertising gimmicks for beer - even pub mats. Retailers also had to pay for beer deliveries in cash - no checks or credit arrangements.

They also had a "hot seat" law. You could stand around a coktail lounge, tavern, or whatever with a drink, but you couldn't be served unless you were seated, and you couldn't stand at a bar and drink. So the bars all had barstools with one reserved for standing room patrons to use when they wanted to order a drink. Once server, protocol was for the customer to stand up and move away from the bar so someone else could be served.
John Michael
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Post by John Michael »

King Kullen Supermarkets had their own brand of beer as well - New York area. Back in the 1960's it was Little King Beer - but in the early 70's they dropped the Little King idea and simply called it King Kullen Beer. If I remember correctly, we also had two types of beer.
Michael
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