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Comment by technothrasher | Hacker News Reader

Note that this law is only for certain products. We would have people at the liquor store I used to own point out mislabeling occasionally and claim we owed them the $10 difference from this law. While we tried to work with customers when we made a pricing error, not only does the accuracy law not apply to alcoholic beverages, but it would often be illegal for us to offer the customer the mistaken price. Alcohol retailers in MA are not legally allowed to sell their products for less than they purchased them.

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That's probably aimed at reducing consumption.

I assume eliminating the "loss leader" concept is the main effect, since shops shouldn't otherwise price things as losses regardless? In which case it seems like it's meant to maintain some friction / overhead for people wanting to visit the stores, possibly reducing consumption at least for the price-sensitive.

In Texas the law exists as well, phrased as cannot offer price below wholesale price for alcohol which in effect bans “bottomless/all you can drink” deals as well. It is indeed designed as a way to discourage consumption

Selling at a loss can also be a monopolistic practice: a firm with enough capital can sell at a loss to capture the market, and then buy out their now-flailing competition.

There's a lot of old laws that special case alcohol in the US; mostly artifacts of prohibition and temperance movements.

>There's a lot of old laws that special case alcohol in the US

yes there are, but the anti happy hour laws are only from the 1970-80s, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, raise the drinking age campaigns.

the previous round of laws like that were from the Temperance, Prohibition, lifting of Prohibition periods.

then before that, yes the Puritan Blue Laws.

Can't buy alcohol before noon on Sunday is one of my faves.

Don't want people stumbling into church drunk!

(That being said, even though I think it's a silly rule, it just seems to exist to annoy alcoholics who can't plan ahead. I'm not an alcoholic, and I rarely consume alcohol before noon, so I just laugh at people who whine about this law.)

Was at the airport on a trip with friends with the flight leaving before noon. None of the bars could sell. We are not alcoholics, but we were on vacation. Well, we were trying to start the vacation but had to wait until leaving uptight red state

> Well, we were trying to start the vacation but had to wait until leaving uptight red state

I live in Massachusetts, the bluest of blue states, and we still have special laws about Alcohol on Sunday. According to Gemini, Logan airport can't start serving until 10 a.m. (Because in Massachusetts, we don't want you getting drunk on the way to your Unitarian or interfaith Sunday service after you get off of your red-eye flight.)

You can also try reading https://www.mass.gov/guides/working-on-sundays-and-holidays-... if you have the time.

>That's probably aimed at reducing consumption.

it's aimed at not encouraging consumption which is slightly different. you can have a "hungry hour" where you entice people with food bargains and sell them alcohol, but you can't have a "happy hour" where you entice people with alcohol bargains.

it is also in keeping with other laws intended to create a competitive/collusion free market (not saying the crafting of those laws was not influenced by incumbents trying to maintain their share)

Is alcohol the only exception?

It's in the article linked

> When buying groceries—food and non-alcoholic beverages, pet food or supplies, disposable paper or plastic products, soap, household cleaners, laundry products, or light bulbs—you must be charged the lowest displayed price, whether on the sticker, scanner, website, or app.

In Australia, when scanners became common, the law was "in the event of a mismatch, the consumer gets first item free, and any subsequent items at the lower price".

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