Law Offices of John P. Connell, P.C.: On March 18, 2013, The Harwich Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to deny the transfer of a liquor license from a liquor store going out of business to Stop & Shop, the venerable supermarket chain. An overflow crowd spilled out from the meeting room where the public hearing was held into the hallway at the town hall.
Generally, an application to transfer a liquor license from one owner to another focuses on the suitability of the business owners that seek to acquire the license. By law, the Board of Selectmen cannot rest their decision on the transfer application based upon the economic effect it will have on other local liquor stores. In this case, however, it appears that the most vocal opposition heard at the hearing was voiced by the many people in attendance who owned or supported the more than 30 package stores within a seven-mile radius of the supermarket.
Testimony at the public hearing was almost exclusively limited to package store owners who felt Stop & Shop’s buying power would give them an unfair competitive advantage that could drive the smaller stores out of business. They argued the marketplace in Harwich was already saturated with liquor stores and didn’t need a big player moving in.
If local hardware stores had an opportunity fifteen years ago to voice their opposition to the opening of a new Lowes or Home Depot in their neighborhood, one would imagine a similar setting. This time around, however, the Board of Selectmen apparently was listening to their established small business constituents and voted to deny the license transfer.
As support for their decision, the Board of Selectmen cited a 2006 Massachusetts referendum in which Harwich voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea of wine being sold in supermarkets as evidence that they did not support the idea of supermarkets selling any alcohol. The Board also expressed concern that a large store, with a lot of floor space to patrol, would have trouble keeping track of its liquor inventory, even though the other Stop & Shops in Massachusetts with liquor licenses have had relatively few problems with this issue.
In the end, the attorney for Stop & Shop, Howard Wayne, stated that the denial of the license transfer was “all about competition,” and not the suitability of Stop & Shop to operate a licensed establishment. Attorney Wayne, therefore, vowed an Appeal to the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
© Law Offices of John P. Connell, P.C., 2013.