The Board of Supervisors approved in an 11-0 vote Tuesday a license for a business to sell alcohol. But the permit came with a condition the city has never required before, those products are to be sold for $15 or more.
This condition is meant to keep away those troublemakers often associated with liquor stores that sell booze on the cheap.
It’s unclear how widespread this “price-point condition,” which would increase by 2 percent annually, will be for future applications to sell alcohol.
But it certainly seemed to be a deciding factor in allowing this business to open up in a neighborhood with a number of liquor stores and crime problems.
At a recent Board of Supervisors committee meeting, Police Department Inspector David Falzon explained the condition as follows:
“The underlying theme is something along the lines of there is too much alcohol in this neighborhood. We have enough alcohol being sold. I absolutely understand that. I think when you look at the traditional liquor model I think those are valid points. I think when we are looking at someone who is going to sell nothing for less than $15, that’s a very specialized market. I don’t see it impacting police services or certainly not the public.”
He also noted that it was “a way that we could make a distinction between high-end businesses that we do not see causing a community or police problem versus the alternative.”
The approval means that the “high-end off-sale wine and distillery shop” at 715 Market St. will start selling wine for $15 or more in short order.
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