It's ridiculously inconvenient to find a specific liquor product in NC. You can't search ABC inventories online, you can't order online to your house, and you can't order online to be picked up at your local ABC store. This doesn't prevent any of the harm that alcohol can cause, and it's absurd and outdated. It's time to bring NC into the 21st century by either providing better customer service through the ABC system or abolishing it entirely.

Please share and contact your legislators directly - you can find them here. Some example text you can use below:

To the members of the NC General Assembly:

The ABC system in North Carolina is extremely inconvenient and far behind the private sector in terms of providing 21st-century customer service. The discerning consumer can, in many states, search for a specific specialty product (like Soju, or a newly introduced Amerian Single Malt Liquor), and then either find a store near them which has it in stock or order it directly to their door or to a local liquor store. This is simply not possible in North Carolina. Not even in Wake County can you search the inventory of nearby ABC stores online. Your only recourse is to physically search or call your local stores one by one to see if they have the product in stock. If it is not available near you, you then have to go in to the store or call to request that they order it in specifically for you. Some more rural stores will not do this, or will only do it if you are prepared to buy in bulk. Most require you to pre-pay.

This situation creates a massive inconvenience for discerning consumers, while generating no public benefit whatsoever. It also dampens cultural and economic development in our state, in at least two ways. First, it makes it difficult for new local NC distilleries to get themselves off the ground, distribute their product, and reach consumers. Secondly, it leads to many consumers purchasing liquor out-of-state in South Carolina or elsewhere, particularly in areas near to the South Carolina border (like Mecklenberg County, which is, perhaps not coincidentally, the only ABC system with an online search function) or among consumers who travel out-of-state frequently. This has downstream economic and cultural impacts - we have a less vibrant, diverse, and innovative food and beverage sector, we fail to reap the benefits of the local agricultural and manufacturing business that more local distilleries would generate buy purchasing from local suppliers, and we lose spending and tax revenue to other states when consumers purchase alcoholic beverages - particularly expensive or bulk products - out of state.

Furthermore, to reiterate, there is no public benefit to any of this. The purported public benefits or an ABC system or other forms strict regulation or punitive taxation of alcoholic beverages, particularly liquor, is to reduce the social harms caused by excess drinking and alchoholism. These are admirable goals, which might in fact be well served by careful regulation and increased alcohol taxes. However, problem drinking behavior is largely associated with purchasing large quantities of cheap, widely available products.  Making it more difficult to acquire rare, unique, and often expensive specialty liquors does not have any effect on these behaviors and their negative social impacts, while creating many negative impacts as stated above.

In addition, poorly run public-sector bodies create a negative impression of the government's ability to positively impact society, and in particular lead to increased demands for privatization and the hollowing out of the State. If the ABC continues to fail to meet customer needs, the public, myself included will rightfully demand that the ABC system be abolished entirely. If that occurs, the state will lose any ability to control the sale of alcohol in ways that benefit the public which it may or may not get by operating a government monopoly.

In summary, I request that you work together with a bipartisan group of colleagues to introduce laws to either a) improve customer service at the ABC, specifically by making it easier for consumers to search for specialty and order for local pickup or delivery specific liquor products, or b) abolish the ABC system entirely.