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June 30, 2005

Here We Go

I don't really have much of a dog in this fight, but....you know how I hate bullshit.*** A bit of background first. See, there's supposedly a Sam's Club that will be built on the outskirts of Fayetteville. They applied for a liquor license, which was denied. They may or may not appeal the denial. The local liquor store owners, as you might imagine, opposed the license.

Area liquor store owners said allowing Sam’s Club to sell alcohol could destroy their businesses.

"They really didn't take much of a look at the smaller business and how it would be affected by the entrance of a Sam’s selling liquor in the market," said Matthew Britt, a liquor store owner.

Britt said he and other storeowners fear that Sam’s selling alcohol would be the start of a domino effect, where other businesses, including convenience stores, would also eventually be allowed to sell liquor.

I hate to break it to those boys, but the ABC board bases its decision on several factors. One is the population formula which calculates how many licenses an area can have. Another is any special considerations, like is the location too close to a school, church, etc. What really isn't a factor is whether the current license holders don't want any competition.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: These are opinions based on my experience as a liquor store owner, not as an attorney. They are not, and should not be construed as a legal opinion.

Now let's look at their second claim, convenience stores selling alcohol. First, that's pretty funny since there's a convenience store AND a liquor store which share a parking lot just right up the street from the proposed Sam's location. Second, there's no reason why a convenience store couldn't sell alcohol now, if they wanted to pony up the money to meet ABC requirements to do so. A Sam's would actually make it less likely they would do so, because the competition would lower everyone's profit margins.

And that's what this is really all about. It's all about the Benjamins. The local stores have had a pretty sweet deal, a captive market you might say. And they don't want anyone spoiling it....especially the sales to private clubs, which is where the real money is.

So it's not about protecting the community or the small business owner. It's about protecting the little monopoly they've got here. And that little monopoly is why prices are so high here. (Why, I damn near had a heart attack the first time I bought some wine up here. We bought from the same distributors, you see. And I knew what that little bottle of wine actually cost.)

Bringing in a little competition would be good.

I don't particularly care one way or another if this gets built, since we're trying to move the hell away from Fayetteville.

Posted by Rita at June 30, 2005 03:40 PM

Comments

What was the song Hank Williams Sr had in the 1990's?

"C'mon over to the Country"?

Posted by: BloodSpite at June 30, 2005 06:43 PM

Wish we could. Unfortunately one of us has to have a fast, reliable internet connection to fulfill his or her job duties. And we're both getting really sick of fighting the traffic on 540.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 30, 2005 07:15 PM

Yes, I thought this was the oddest thing. I bought a bottle of wine recently, and there was a petition in the store stating something to the effect of "we the undersigned are opposed to the opening of a Sam's Club Liquor Store in Northwest Arkansas." The petition actually had about 20 signatures. I just couldn't understand this. Why would I be opposed to buying decent bottles of wine for half the cost, and why would anyone else who wasn't a competing liquor store distributor?

Of course, we always have the same liquor law wars here in NWA. Whenever someone puts it up to vote that Benton County should go wet, the surrounding liquor stores in Washington County and Missouri actually give money to area churches to fight it. Ridiculous.

Posted by: Vicky at June 30, 2005 08:42 PM

Lots of money, I'd imagine. If Benton County goes wet, the Washington County stores lose all those sales to the private clubs up there.

Here's another thing. At one time, all the licenses in Washington County were owned by one person. I've no idea whether that's still true or not. But that would certainly be another big incentive to keep Sam's out.

OTOH, the city of Fayetteville could sure use the extra tax revenue. So this may get real interesting before it's over.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 1, 2005 02:32 AM