Bids come fast for Wash. liquor stores
Friday, April 20, 2012
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Bidders sent an online, public auction of Washington's state-run liquor stores well beyond its scheduled 4 p.m. conclusion.
Furious bidding over the rights to more than a dozen stores kept the auction online past 5 p.m. Friday.
Voters approved an initiative last year kicking the state out of a booze industry it has tightly controlled since the end of Prohibition.
The state opened the auction of its 167 state-run stores on March 8. By 5 p.m. Friday, more than 10,000 bids had been made, and more were still coming.
Winners will be announced Monday.
___
More like this
Bids for Wash. liquor stores top $20 mil
