Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and witness a genuine Colorado oddity: A supermarket that sells booze.

The Safeway grocery store that will open this fall at West Mineral Avenue and Broadway in Littleton will join the handful of retailers in the state in which a single proprietor offers a full array of alcoholic beverages and food under the same roof.

Only three retail and grocery chains in the state - Rite Aid, Target and Kmart - sell liquor and full-strength beer and wine, each in a single location; a smattering of independent pharmacies hawk the full range of libations as well.

That's because a state law dating from the end of Prohibition allows the recipient of a retail liquor license to sell alcohol at only one store.

And while this odd arrangement might take out-of-state visitors by surprise - in many other states, chain stores routinely sell beer, wine and liquor - it's an annoyance that has long outlived any sensible policy objective.

The legislature has tried and failed several times in recent years to bring the Prohibition-vintage alcohol restrictions in line with the contemporary marketplace. In 2008, lawmakers should try again.

"Mom and pop" alcohol retailers have persuaded previous legislatures that they could not survive in a marketplace that allows a host of libation-vending supermarkets, pharmacy chains and discount stores. Why independent liquor stores could not survive in Colorado under such circumstances defies understanding. In other states with more open alcohol laws, the corner beer-and-wine market flourishes - sometimes across the street from mega-marts that also sell booze.

The only reason for maintaining the current system in Colorado - aside from the fact that alcohol retailers employ effective lobbyists - seems to be that, well, that's the way it's been for nearly 75 years. Why mess with something that works?

Consumers might beg to differ.

In the 1930s, the worry was that organized crime, which controlled alcohol sales during Prohibition, would continue to dominate the market when drinking again became legal. Colorado's rules on retail distribution prevented a person or a "syndicate" from cornering the market on beer, wine and spirits.

That concern is no longer credible, and it hurts Coloradans who would relish the opportunity to grab a six-pack along with a bag of chips and a jar of salsa (and maybe even a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread) without having to visit two stores and stand in a couple of checkout lines. Believe us, it really happens in other states.

The mom-and-pops also stand to benefit in at least one respect if such convenience became legal in Colorado. They'd have a better chance to keep their customers happy if they could sell food - snacks at least - along with the full array of alcohol products. The state's bizarre retailing rules prohibit just about all of them, for example, from offering pretzels with their beer.

Of course, even the new Littleton Safeway will have to abide by another Colorado anomaly: Sunday blue laws, which prevent the retail sale of spirits and full-strength beer and wine on that day.

But we suppose it's too much to ask lawmakers to tackle more than one outdated law regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages in a single calendar year.