LIQUOR STORES: Area Liquor Stores Share Reactions To Legislation on Extended Hours

Last Tuesday, May 18, the City Council narrowly passed (7 to 6) a bill that will allow liquor stores in the city to apply for permission to stay open two extra hours. Under the law, stores will be able to sell liquor until midnight, rather than the current 10 p.m. closing time, if they successfully obtain an additional license for the extended hours from the city's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

Area liquor stores reacted differently to the new legislation.

Suzie, owner of Yoni Food Market & Carryout, at 101 15th St. NE, was elated at the news. She said the store could pick up considerably more business with the extra two hours, which would be very helpful for her nascent enterprise. Suzie said she took over the ownership only three months ago and now realized that business was not easy. Meanwhile, Suzie was mindful about how the neighborhood would respond if she applied for the extension.

One block north, at 201 15th St. NE, Hernan Gallo, owner of Anita's Market, said he would consider applying for the license to get the two-hour extension, though he wasn't too enthusiastic about it. For one thing, he said, the store normally closes before 10 p.m. anyway. In the winter, the store often closes at 8 p.m. Therefore his store most likely wouldn't benefit from the new legislation. Mr. Gallo said another, perhaps more important, reason, is that he would have to overcome some serious hurdles to get the extra license. He said maintaining the current liquor license already is a big challenge, even though "we did all the right things." On a recent weekday afternoon, I observed that a "No Loitering, No Littering" sign was hung on the storefront, the sidewalks nearby were clean, and no loiterers were in sight. "We keep it clean," Mr. Gallo said, not hesitating to claim credit. Still, Gallo said he "had enough with the ANC" and had recently put the store up for sale.

North of Anita's Market is J & K Market, at 234 15th St. NE, where owner James Seu has toiled around the store for 20 years. Working 12-plus hour days behind and around the counter, Seu did not entertain the idea of keeping the store open for two extra hours until midnight each day. But he would not rule out the possibility of getting the additional license either, in case the competition around him forces him to stay open for two extra hours. Mr. Seu was very confident about the competitiveness of his store, as long as all liquor stores in the city play by the same rules. For that reason, he was wary of another measure approved by the City Council on May 18, prohibiting the sale of single containers of beer at liquor stores and groceries in the commercial areas of Ward 4. After fighting hard to overcome protests of his regular liquor license renewal twice in the last four years, Mr. Seu said he was getting tired and thinking about selling the place in two years, when his second child is through college.

Less than two blocks north of J & K Market is Viggy's Liquor, at 409 15th St. NE, with a large parking lot and a crowd often loitering outside the store. When asked whether the store would consider apply for the license to sell liquor for two extra hours each day, the manager said the store would definitely get more business with the extra business hours. But speaking through a hole in a wall of bulletproof glass, the manager said she would be very concerned about the safety issue if the store remained open till midnight.

City Council members engaged a hot debate on whether liquor stores should stay open two extra hours past the current 10 p.m. closing time, before the legislation was approved by a slim margin. Proponents said businesses and the city lose revenue when shoppers cross the state border to buy liquor in neighboring states, where liquor stores stay open until midnight. Opponents argued that the extension of liquor store hours late into the night would cause more safety concerns for residents and law enforcement officers. They also fear that the case-by-case approval procedure required by the new measure would put enormous pressure on the limited resources of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. §