1970s Beer Signs

Safeway liquor license transferred to new Olney store

by Kristi Tousignant, Staff Writer

Briggs Chaney residents won’t be able to pick up a six-pack of beer or bottle of pinot grigio while shopping at their local Safeway next month.

When Safeway opens its new Olney location Feb. 23, the grocery chain will transfer its beer and wine license from its location in Briggs Chaney Plaza to the new store on Spartan Road, said Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle.

Safeway and three other groceries are alloted a beer and wine license for one of their locations in Montgomery County, said Kathie Durbin, chief for Department of Liquor Control.

The move means inconvenience for some shoppers in Burtonsville and Silver Spring who will no longer be able to buy beer and wine on their weekly grocery trips.

Susan Strahan, 52, of Silver Spring was upset when she found out beer and wine would no longer be sold in her local grocery.

Strahan has been shopping at the Safeway in Briggs Chaney Plaza for 20 years, always picking up beer or wine while there.

“It’s an arcane law,” Strahan said. “It just seems ridiculous.”

The location is convenient. She lives just off Fairland Road and drives only five minutes to the store.

Strahan said she worried the liquor license transfer would cause the store to lose customers in an already struggling shopping center.

“Since Safeway is really the anchor store there, if they make Safeway a less desirable store to go to, then it may hurt their business and if they end up deciding it’s no longer profitable. That’s probably going to be end of that shopping center,” Strahan said.

Maryland state law bans groceries from selling beer and wine. Four grocery chains — Shoppers, Giant Food, Magruder’s Supermarket and Safeway received an exception under a grandfather clause, because they had licenses before the law was enacted These four are allowed to have one location that sells beer and wine in Montgomery County, said Durbin.

Giant’s store on New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, Shoppers in Germantown and Magruders in Gaithersburg have beer and wine licenses, Durbin said.

These licenses can all be transferred to any of the chain’s other county locations, Durbin said.

The Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners approved Safeway’s request to move its license to Olney in November 2010, Durbin said.

Durbin said it is rare for any of the grocery chains to transfer licenses to another location in the county.

Muckle said Safeway decided to transfer the license because they thought there was a market in Olney for beer and wine to be sold in the grocery.

“We are not going to put it there if we think people don’t have an interest,” Muckle said.

He also said the beer and wine license would be a way for the store to compete with the new Harris Teeter on Town Center Drive and the Giant Food on Georgia Avenue.

“We saw this is an opportunity to really differentiate ourselves,” Muckle said.

Muckle said Safeway notified customers of a possible liquor license transfer last year by posting signs before the hearing. Safeway also will hang warning signs in the Briggs Chaney Safeway before the new location in Olney opens, he said. The two stores are about 11 miles apart.

Store managers have reported that customers seemed to accept the change, he said.

“There has been quite a bit of word of mouth in the community,” Muckle said. “Customers seem to be very understanding of that.”

Muckle said the larger Olney store will offer a wider selection of beer and wine than Briggs Chaney.

All of Safeway’s locations in Virginia and 10 of its 14 stores in Washington, D.C., sell beer and wine, he said.

“A lot of other divisions have beer and wine as a regular offering,” Muckle said. “We have more experience than people might think.”

ktousignant@gazette.net