North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Boards »
Back in 1937, the North Carolina General Assembly created a system of control for "spirituous liquor" in the state. This act allowed voters in each county to determine whether or not liquor would be sold at retail, and if it would be sold, their vote would create an ABC board in that county, which in turn would be able to run one - yes, one - retail ABC store. Some seventy years later, there are 156 separate ABC systems in North Carolina and 392 retail stores.
Obviously something has changed, since there should be a one-to-one correlation with those numbers, and that is obviously not the case. I can personally say that there are nineteen in Charlotte, according to the search tool on the site. I haven't been to each of them. According to a recent article in the Charlotte Observer, while two-thirds of the boards run only one store, as was originally intended, there are actually nine boards in Brunswick Country operating ten stores. So I don't know how it works, I just know that it's a really odd setup.
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