In the name of all things sacred and good in this world, don't raise the price of hard liquor.

We're talking to you, Quality Dairy, looking at you, Big Ten and Country Markett. We see you, Tom's Party Store. Just because you live on the other side of Hagadorn doesn't mean you're exempt, either. Trying to sneak away like that. Come on, you're better than that.

We beg this because of a piece of legislation signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Monday that allows for Michigan retailers who sell liquor to raise their prices. Before Monday, there was a state-set cap on how much stores could charge for the top-shelf stuff, but now there isn't. We are worried, and thirsty.

Truthfully, though, our appetite for liquor is being presented facetiously to make a point. No matter how many liquor stores are in operation, no matter how much product they move and no matter how much they decide to charge, Michigan liquor retailers are not going to send prices SKYY-high.

Remember your microeconomics class? Neither do we. But in situations where sales caps are lifted and retailers are free to set their own prices, supply and demand dictates going rates. The exception, of course, is price-gouging, the practice of raising the price of a heavily demanded good to make the greatest profit. Why won't this happen? Visit an East Lansing liquor store on a Friday night around 9 or 10 p.m. and see how demand for liquor will keep prices competitive.

Granholm's signature on this legislation is an olive branch to small business owners. It symbolically grants them the reach to make more money from a good that's a traditional top-seller. But it should be just that - symbolic. Small businesses going after the booze nickel in East Lansing already know that if it's too much one place, we're headed right next door to someplace where it isn't.