Yes, alcohol sales are set by the individual state (and sometimes county) in the US. Here in North Carolina, you can buy beer & wine in a restaurant, supermarket, movie theater, etc. (subject to licensing and state Blue Laws [0] governing times when they can be sold), but hard liquor is sold in a state-run Alcohol Beverage Control [1] store. When you hear the phrase "Dry County" that's a county which does not allow alcohol sales at all [2]. Today, North Carolina has just one dry county - Graham, near the Tennessee border.
So if you live near a state border it's not uncommon to do your alcohol shopping in the adjacent state if the laws and taxes there are more lax. But there can be personal-consumption transportation limits, which if you exceed you can be charged with bootlegging [3].
Story time: There is a discount liquor store in South Carolina just across the state line, south of the city of Charlotte. Many years ago the North Carolina ABC department sent an agent to sit in their parking lot and radio the license plates of cars that had large alcohol purchases to fellow agents waiting along the highway. Those agents would pull those cars over and charge the drivers with bootlegging. The South Carolina highway patrol took offense to this impingement on their authority and sent a couple officers to discuss matters with the ABC agent, and explain to him how he did not have jurisdiction in their state, and to please go home now.
So if you live near a state border it's not uncommon to do your alcohol shopping in the adjacent state if the laws and taxes there are more lax. But there can be personal-consumption transportation limits, which if you exceed you can be charged with bootlegging [3].
Story time: There is a discount liquor store in South Carolina just across the state line, south of the city of Charlotte. Many years ago the North Carolina ABC department sent an agent to sit in their parking lot and radio the license plates of cars that had large alcohol purchases to fellow agents waiting along the highway. Those agents would pull those cars over and charge the drivers with bootlegging. The South Carolina highway patrol took offense to this impingement on their authority and sent a couple officers to discuss matters with the ABC agent, and explain to him how he did not have jurisdiction in their state, and to please go home now.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law [1] https://abc.nc.gov/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_county [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum-running