Online auction for Wash. liquor store ends
Friday, April 20, 2012
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- An online auction of Washington's 167 state-run liquor stores has ended after a flurry of bids extended it by nearly two-and-a-half hours.
The state Liquor Control Board declined to release a total dollar value for the bids late Friday, saying winners will be announced Monday.
An Associated Press tally showed a total of at least $27 million. But a handful of stores were missing from that list, so the final number could go higher.
The public auction opened March 8 and had been scheduled to end at 4 p.m. Friday. A steady stream of late bids kept it open until nearly 6:30 p.m.
More than 13,000 bids were made.
Voters approved an initiative last year kicking the state out of a booze industry it has tightly controlled since the end of Prohibition.
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