QUINCY, MASS. (WHDH) - Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch is considering a ban on small bottles of booze that are more commonly known as “nips.” However, not everyone is on board with the idea.
Koch pointed to the city’s 27 miles of coastline, saying the ban on the little bottles will help clean up the city.
“They’re around — you see them littered. I don’t know if it would be in this order but cigarette butts, lottery tickets, masks and nips,” he said. “They’re not good for the environment. Particularly when they get into the storm drains they get out into the ocean.”
Koch said the ban could also lend a helping hand to bars and restaurants.
“If you got people coming in the barrooms unknowing to them with nips in their pockets, pocketbooks, augmenting their drinks— I don’t think that’s fair,” he explained. “It’s an easy fix in my mind. I understand some of the packies perhaps will take a little bit of a hit but I don’t see this as that substantial.”
Workers behind the registers at Presidential Liquors told 7NEWS they beg to differ. According to them, nip sales make up 50 percent of their business at times.
“That’s what they do. Its portion control that way they don’t drink it all at once,” one clerk said.
Some say the ban might not be the solution to the litter problem either.
“I love nips personally, that’s my favorite thing,” said Quincy resident Malik James. “I will for sure be upset if I have to go somewhere else.”
Some liquor store managers feel the ban should be a last resort. But, Koch said he expects the ban to pass — much like the moratorium on plastic bags.
“We are going to do what we can and leave the earth a little better than we found it. Right,” he said.
Koch said he hopes to get it through by the summer.
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