New York -- Washington state opened a public auction online Thursday of its state-run liquor stores, beginning the process of privatizing an industry the state has tightly controlled since the end of Prohibition, the Associated Press reported.
The minimum bid is $1,000, and within hours, more than 30 bidders had entered the fray, the report said. Some were looking to buy rights to all of the stores, while the majority bid on individual store locations.
