Alcohol licenses abound in the San Joaquin Valley. How many is too many?

IN SOME NEIGHBORHOODS in the San Joaquin Valley, it’s challenging to go more than a block or two without finding someplace to buy alcohol.

Between liquor stores, convenience stores, neighborhood markets and large grocers – and from the smallest rural outposts to the region’s largest cities across eight counties – 2,140 retailers hold state-issued alcohol licenses to sell beer and wine for off-site consumption. Throw in another 1,709 licensees authorized to sell distilled spirits as well as beer and wine, and it adds up to 3,849 stores to pick up a six-pack of beer, a bottle of wine, or a fifth of bourbon, rum, gin or vodka.