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Comment by ewhanley | Hacker News Reader

In Montana, you're paying for the liquor license. It's not uncommon to see hole-in-the-wall bars in 2000 person towns go for $1 million. They are quota-ed and similar to the NYC taxi medallion system.

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This is correct. On the other hand since tasting rooms can operate without a liquor license it creates a real advantage for small brewereries etc. My town of 5000 has two mircobreweries, a distillery and a cidery and Montana ranks second (IIRC) in breweries per capata.

Plus all the really cool bars are out in the middle of the mountains nowhere near a town.

True story. I was born in Ennis, population single digits thousands. They have a brewery and distillery.

New Mexico is similar. Incorporated Towns and Cities as well as Counties can issue beer and wine licenses, a generally issue them frequently and cheaply, but hard liquor is only issues by the state there are limits, and they are transferrable, so the license itself can easily sell for a million depending on the license. Recent sales prices in NM: https://bit.ly/2YyzzWf (PDF)

Does that actually recoup? Or are they buying those licenses to use in more populated areas? (curious if they are tied to the town or not)

As with Uber and medallions, the increasing popularity of craft breweries able to operate with an inexpensive license has led to some big legislative battles. The Montana Tavern Association (MTA, liquor license holders) try to crush the craft breweries every legislative session. They have limited the taphouses to some extent: they can only serve four pints per person per day and they have to close at 8 PM. Also similar to Uber vs taxi drivers the general public likes the breweries and the MTA struggles to maintain a popular image while trying to legislate away erosion of their license values.

Is that in the USA? Sounds very unbelievable to me, here (in eastern EU) we demonstrate if people try to limit opening hours few days a year!

If I remember correctly, it depends on when and by what authority they were issued. I think some are specific to a town whereas others extend to the whole county.

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