With cigarette smoke floating through the pockets of darkness the bar’s splotchy lighting doesn’t reach, lifelong Columbia resident William Corbett outlined his dislike of minibottles in moments.

“You can look at it as being unique, saying you’re the only one with minibottles, but it’s also xenophobia,” said Corbett, 40, a warehouse supervisor and regular at this bar, Group Therapy on Greene Street in Five Points.

“My view is that other states are doing it, and they’ve been doing it, so what’s the problem?” he said.

On Tuesday, South Carolina voters could mark a change to the minibottle law — namely, initiating a full-size bottle law — that would have bars scurrying to revamp their insides and revise their processes.

The wall behind the bar at Group Therapy displayed a couple of wooden shelving units with fluorescent lights that illuminated six levels of minibottles in a mix of deep browns, golds, greens, whites and even a few pinks. The bar’s guts are built around minibottles.

“Anywhere there’s liquor, they’re all set up for minibottles,” said Chris Smith, 31, a Group Therapy bartender.

He learned his trade in the state where minibottles rule, so the job of bartender would be a new world for him if minibottles are voted out, he said.

The little bottle has become so interwoven in South Carolina’s culture during the past 30 years it has withstood countless challenges and catapulted the state to become the only one to still use them. (Utah was second to last and dropped it in 1991.) The issue also has made its way to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and has been featured in national publications such as the Washington Post.

Drinkers want minibottles out to get a cheaper drink; the bar industry wants to keep it small for inventory control and status quo.

Karen Schoolmeester, 45, who owns Blue Martini and Rust in the Vista, described her response should minibottles bite the dust: “Cry.”

She said she’d have to redo Blue Martini’s shelving because it isn’t built to support the weight of the larger bottles. Rust, her newer bar, was made to accommodate full-size bottles because minibottles were under fire when she developed that location.

Having more than 100 brands — a total of at least 1,200 minibottles — on hand at any time, she must have a system to keep the drinks flowing.

She said she’d have to develop a way to inventory items (as of now each bottle counts as one serving, whereas a large bottle would hold an uncertain, varying number of servings) and find the time to retrain bartenders, who would have to switch from pouring a predetermined amount to estimating a 1-ounce shot.

“We don’t know what an ounce feels like,” she said.

While speed isn’t her bar’s greatest concern — martinis take a while to prepare, anyway — the extra time to measure out shots is a wait she doesn’t want to pass on to customers.

“It’s just another two or three seconds added on,” she said. “That’s a big deal when you’re two to three deep in the bar.”

OUTSIDERS LOOKING IN

When Kimberly Strawn, 25, and Daniel Coppens, 26, moved to Columbia from Florida, they had culture shock.

Upon tasting a drink made with a minibottle, Strawn’s response was this: “Wow. I can’t believe they’re doing it. Nasty — it’s too strong.”

She and Coppens, a telecommunications worker, were sitting in a far corner of Rust.

“To people who live here,” Coppens said, “they don’t realize, they don’t know the difference.”

One of Strawn’s favorite drinks is a White Russian, made with milk, a shot of vodka and a shot of Kahlua (a drink made popular by the movie “The Big Lebowski”).

Back home, this drink would cost her $6 at most because the pricing would be per shot, which is 1 ounce in Florida. Here, she said, the drink runs as high as $10 because it is made with minibottles — each of which cost about $5.

Coppens took a drag from his cigar as Strawn broke down the price.

“In my opinion,” he said, “you’re getting forced to drink more liquor.”

They both laugh when recalling their first experience with minibottles. The drink cost $15, and they had to split it three ways.

“When I go home or to visit family in Minnesota,” Strawn said, “they say, ‘Aren’t you the state that still uses minibottles?’ And that’s how the state is known.”

SUPPORTING THE MINI

Not all drinkers are gung ho about ousting the bitty bottle.

At a packed house in the Liberty Tap Room and Grill in the Vista, Steve McMillan, 28, of Columbia, said he is going to vote to keep minibottles pouring.

Drinking a Seagram’s 7 and 7-Up, McMillan said it will be easier for bartenders if the minibottles remain, and he likes his drink poured at a consistent strength.

“You know what you’re getting when you order a drink,” he said.

Across the room, Alvy Singer, 29, likewise voiced support for minibottles.

“I’m very pro-Palmetto Hospitality,” the Columbia resident said in reference to a state organization that supports minibottles. And “you get drunker faster.”

Whether the bottle will get super-sized or continue as a modern oddity is hard to gauge. Either way, Corbett will swing by Group Therapy in Five Points after work.

“In good and bad times, people are going to drink,” he said. “It just depends what the great people of South Carolina want.”