“Everyone thinks their state's alcohol laws are weird and bizarre, and that's because many states have weird or bizarre laws,” says Robert Moss, a Charleston resident and author of “Southern Spirits: Four Hundred Years of Drinking in the American South, with Recipes.”

“The No. 1 search query that brings people to my website is, 'Why do liquor stores have red dots?'” he said.

In South Carolina, alcohol was treated very differently than beer and wine. There were strict laws and a higher minimum drinking age. This was the case until the 1980s, when the minimum drinking age for all alcoholic beverages was set at 21.

“Strong alcohol was associated with all the evils that led to Prohibition,” said Moss, who also writes restaurant reviews for The Post and Courier.

In South Carolina, alcohol was banned on the first day of 1916, four years before the federal government imposed Prohibition, and it was not legalized again until two years after Prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

The state's strict signage regulations for liquor stores faded over time until the 1990s, but the red dots remained as a tradition.

“They're just the iconic symbol of liquor stores in South Carolina,” Moss said. “When you drive through small towns, you see small buildings where the only sign is the red dot.”

Today, large signs, bottles in the windows and advertisements with special offer prices are allowed. Some major alcoholic beverage chains – Total Wine & More, Bottles Beverage Superstore and the liquor stores at Costco – don't usually have red dots, but some Bottles stores do.

The ban on serving alcoholic beverages, which forced restaurant patrons to bring their own liquor in a brown bag, was lifted after South Carolina voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that was ratified in 1973.