Two Local Businesses Speak About Liquor Privatization

This past Sunday RTD had a front page article on the plan to privatize liquor sales in the commonwealth.  The Cliff Notes© version of the article is don’t expect any of our local store owners to be carrying any booze anytime soon. In order to get a license for liquor a business owner needs to spend $100,000 just to enter the bidding process.

Some quotes from Tom Harris of Once Upon a Vine South;

“The little guys are going to get stomped,” Harris said. “This is being set up to have a different type of monopoly for people with a lot of money.”

and

“It all sounds good on the top, but the only ones whose pockets are going to be deep enough are big, they’re corporate, and they’re from out of state,”

RTD also talked with some convience store owners including one of our locals.

Babu Ahmed does a brisk beer business at his 48 Hours convenience store on Forest Hill Avenue in Richmond. His interest, too, was piqued by the idea of privatization and then quashed by the price.

“Oh, no,” he said with a look of shock when he heard the minimum bid for a license. “We don’t have that kind of cash.”