Regarding CA and denatured alcohol, I've been able to get it from West Marine. You usually have to order it - if they get any in the store it goes fast. It may be different now but as of a year ago (after the ban) I was able to get it.
That's interesting, Mark. You got my curiosity up, so I just called my local West Marine. I just hung up with a manager and got an earful about the trials and tribulations of them getting denatured alcohol. It's quite Byzantine. Here's what I was able to glean from the conversation; hopefully there isn't too much lost in the translation:
There was a period after the ban when WM could not get it at all. Period. They now are able to get it--sometimes. But the individual California stores cannot order it from their warehouse to be shipped to the local stores, nor can one store that doesn't have it request any from a nearby store that does.
It seems to work something like this: Their warehouse person in Watsonville, who is hazmat certified, is able to order it if he puts the order through as stove fuel and not as denatured alcohol, even though it's the identical product. (Of course this makes no sense, but this is what she told me.) Then, it shows up at the stores along with other items that normally come in on their pallets as a regular part of restocking their stores. But a store that runs out cannot order it specifically from the warehouse through their ordering system because it shows it is blocked as hazardous material, which only their warehouse has the authority to order and disburse. So the stores just get it when they get it, which she said is kind of hit or miss.
The reason a store that does have it can't transfer any of their stock to a store that needs it--as could be done with pretty much any other WM item--is that the person that would arrange the transfer would have to be hazmat certified, and they are not. What she can do, however, is call another store and ask them to hold it for a customer, who would pick it up in person. This is something the customer can do for him/herself as well, of course. So, if I were desperate for it, I could right now drive down to the Huntington Beach store (where they have 3 gallons) or the Marina Del Rey store (where they have 5) and buy it at $22/gallon.
However...when they do get it, she says that customers hoard it. So, she said not long ago they got in six of the one gallon containers through their normal pallet restocking and one customer pounced on it and bought five of them. She said this is common. So this would make reserving it important, since it could be gone by the time someone got there to buy it.
Meh. One can buy it in 5 gal. drums from Zoro, who has free shipping and at a price of about $15/gal. (vs. WM's $22/gal.--when you can get it). However, ever since the ban, if you try to buy it from Zorro, their site specifically says that shipping to California is prohibited. Zoro will ship to Nevada, of course. So if--hypothetically speaking--one happened to have cousins who live in Nevada that one would be visiting anyway, that would be another way of procuring said alcohol, in quantities large enough (and cheap enough) to last quite some time. Hypothetically speaking.
