Panel OKs Liquor Permits

O WALMART STORES ALLOWED TO SELL BEER, SMALL FARM WINES

By Lana Flowers

Posted: November 20, 2009 at 4:30 a.m.

J.T. Wampler
Lee Deaton, left, and Nathan Schmidt box up a wine order Thursday for a customer at Crossover Liquor in Fayetteville.

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FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville liquor stores have a new competitor, after the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Thursday granted wine and beer permits to two Fayetteville Walmart stores.

The board on Thursday unanimously approved granting a permit to sell beer and small farm wines, made in batches of 250,000 gallons or less, at the Walmart Supercenter at 3919 N. Mall Ave. in Fayetteville, said Michael Langley, director of the ABC Board.

The board voted 3-1 to grant a beer and wine permit to the Walmart Neighborhood Market at 2690 E. Citizens Drive, off Crossover Road in Fayetteville, Langley said.

“We are pleased that the permits were approved and look forward to being able to serve our customers with this added convenience,” said Laurie Smalling, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. director of business strategy, public affairs and government relations.

She expects Walmart will have its two new state permits early next week, then plan the next steps. Smalling said she was unsure when customers could buy beer and wine at the two Fayetteville locations.

The ABC Board unanimously denied the permit request for the Walmart Supercenter at 2875 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., also called Sixth Street, to sell beer and small farm wines.

Smalling said she was disappointed that permit was denied, as customers wouldn’t have the added convenience of purchasing beer and wine. Langley said the board denied that permit because of crime in the area and there are other places to buy alcohol.

The Walmart permits concerned a Fayetteville liquor store manager, though his store is not near the Neighborhood Market or the Mall Avenue Supercenter.

“It won’t affect us much, but it did open a can of worms in general,” said Andy Gillespie, manager of Liquor Mart and Wine Shoppe at 2100 N. College Ave.

He said selling alcohol in a Supercenter, where families shop for groceries, could tempt some to buy beer and not leave enough money to buy food for their families.

Fayetteville Police Chief Greg Tabor and State Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, previously objected to Wal-Mart’s request to sell beer and small farm wines.

However, the Fayetteville Police Department did not send a representative to Thursday’s ABC Board meeting. Tabor was out of the offce Thursday and his secretary said he could not be reached for comment.

Fayetteville is a college town and his department takes underage drinking seriously, Tabor previously said. Selling alcohol in Walmarts means “just one more place, two more places, three more places that we have to monitor for underage drinking,” according to Tabor.

Wal-Mart conducted a social media petition campaign, asking people to support its beer/ wine permit requests through its Community Action Network at arkansas.walmartcommunity. com.

Wa l-Mart sells beer and wine at 36 other stores in Arkansas, Smalling said.

Comments

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Mr. Gillespie, manager of Liquor Mart and Wine Shoppe, was really reaching when he said that selling alcohol in a grocery store "could tempt some to buy beer and not leave enough money to buy food for their families". Only a person with a series alcohol problem would do that and those persons are going to get their alcohol anywhere they can even if the only store was 50 miles away.

Posted by: youngschmidt07

March 19, 2010 at 3:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )