Colomac,
Glad you are here. Welcome! It's those realizations of how ridiculous our behavior has become that help move us, I think, one by one, to help us finally get off the lunacy of the Drinking Treadmill.
Are you new here and ready to make a change too?
I did that kind of sneaking around. It was pitiful. I'd buy wine in every possible place in town -- gourmet wine stores, Costco, Sams, random grocery stores, drug stores, convenience marts, Wal Mart, Target... It makes me ashamed to think about the money I spent, the miles I drove, the bottles I hauled.
If I went out late at night to buy wine, I'd throw in a few "necessary" items in the basket to make it seem reasonable to be at the store buying wine at say 10 pm. "Oh, she needed toilet paper, and then just happened to get wine too."
Riiiighhht.
Dee's observation is right on, too.. It is inevitable that there would have come a day when we didn't care anymore what the clerks think. By then, how far would we be gone?
I decided I couldn't live that way anymore. I haven't bought wine in over 2 months. It's such a relief. (I've also saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars.)
Hope you are ready to turn a corner too.