(KPBJ) - A year ago, you couldn’t buy liquor at grocery stores in Washington. Now you can, but you probably pay more for it.

June 1 will mark the one-year anniversary of the state’s departure from the liquor business, when it turned sales over to private retailers such as Costco Wholesale and Safeway. The conversion happened at the behest of voters, who approved a Costco-written initiative in the fall of 2011.

Back then, only 329 stores — all state-run or contracted with the state — sold liquor in Washington.

Now more than 1,400 retailers sell slightly more liquor than the state used to — an average of 2.7_million liters a month since privatization, compared with 2.5_million before.

Prices spiked sharply last summer, but the rate of increase has steadily declined. In March, prices were 7 percent higher year-over-year, according to the Washington State Department of Revenue.