Off-licence Shops

In England there is a special kind of store called: the Off-licence shop. For an outsider, the term might not be understandable. I took the liberty of looking it up at wikipedia. The term off-licence and on-licence comes from the 1700s, when Gin was cheaper then beer. This is something that was not favoured at the time, so they tried taxing Gin. The continous riots made the taxing impossible, so for a few years Gin was again taxless.
Some 20 years later, somebody tried getting money from the cheap gin bussiness, by enforcing an Act, that stated that gin can only be sold at places, that have licences. That's when the licence stuff all came up.
Today regulations of the British Crown are moderately strict about alcohol consumption and in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scottland and England they all came up with some sort of licencing Act. The common in them is that there are on-licences and off-licences.
An on-licence goes for the numerous kinds of restaurants, bars and hotels and the term relates to the place where you can drink the alcohol. So if you buy a beer then you have to drink it on site at an on-licence place. However off-licence places allow you to buy beverages in bottles, and you are not allowed to drink it in the store, you have to drink it off the premises. These shops usually referred to as "Offie" or "Offy". Some restaurants call themselves fully licenced. This means they serve liqours also, not only beers, vines or cider.
In the various regions of the United Kingdom the licence types may vary, but the general categories of licences are all the same.