Monday, October 5, 2009
News Is 'happiness' illegal in Atlanta?
Posted by Bobby Feingold @senorbobby on Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 7:00 PM
With many people losing their jobs or simply due to the tough times, it seems that all anyone could ask for these days is a cold drink. Even better for everyone's slimming wallets if it's happy hour, right? Wrong, according to Atlanta laws. As pointed out by Mara Shalhoup's article, laws that date back to the 1970s make it illegal to sell "any alcoholic beverage at a price less than the price regularly charged for such alcoholic beverage during the same calendar week."
Creative Loafing Facebook followers have put their two-cents in:
Why the hell is Atlanta subject to laws that are clearly influenced by the red sea of religious idiocy that makes up the rest of the state??
Another Facebook fan adds that Atlanta needs to change these laws to keep the city's restaurants and bars in business. But Atlanta is not the only city with these happy hour laws. In fact, Massachusetts implemented a state-wide ban on happy hours back in 1984, and the U.S. Military did away with happy hours at all military base clubs the same year. According to MADD, 21 other states in addition to Mass. have anti-happy hour laws.
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(CL file photo by Joeff Davis)
Comments (3)
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Um...Atlanta is just mean. Well, I think we're actually getting meaner with each extra minute of traffic we are subjected to sit in because someone decided that the emergency shoulder was actually a LANE and then hit a deer carcas.... And I totally think you should be reading my blog...cause it's awesome. And no, I don't have a censor. And yes, I know "totally" is a fifth grade word from 1985.
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Sorry, y'all, I just think we have enough traffic problems without a bunch of middle-aged corporate drunks engaging in alcohol-enhanced road rage. Keep as is, please.
As I seem to recall, because I am that old, happy hour pricing was banished in many states in the late '70s/early '80s to quell drunk driving incidents. After all, the concept of "happy hour" was to allow the workaday man and woman a chance to decompress before the drive home -- not such a good idea in retrospect. As a result of those laws, many bars replaced 2-for-1 drink specials with free food buffets.
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