On Friday and Saturday nights, the line to get a bottle of wine at the liquor store in this southern Utah town can stretch out the back door. The storage area of the town’s lone liquor store is often stacked so high and so wide with cases of alcohol it’s tough to walk or push a dolly through. But it doesn’t take long for the piles to shrink and for customers to start complaining the store is out of stock. “It’s been this way probably for a good year and a half,” said Lee Scarlet, who manages the store. “It gets worse and worse and worse.”
There’s a supply problem facing those who imbibe in this city of 126,000, where spectacular red rock scenery, sunny weather and affordable proximity to Las Vegas have contributed to a record population boom. St. George has a single state-run liquor outlet — on the city’s west side — and its inventory is often depleted.
In Utah, liquor, wine and beer with an alcohol content over 3.2 percent by weight can only be purchased in state liquor stores. State law sets the number of liquor stores based on state, not local, populations. The law says the number of liquor stores can’t exceed one per 48,000 people in the state...
