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Wednesday, 20 February 2008 01:13

Wal-Mart Seeks Alcoholic Beverage License

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The Wal-Mart Store on Wicklow Way in Martell is taking a second shot at obtaining an alcoholic beverage license. On February 12th, the Amador County Board of Supervisors received Wal-Mart’s application for a license to sell beer and wine. The Supervisors denied the store’s original request for a license in October of 2004 in a split 2-2 vote.  In October of 2005, Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated, the world’s largest retailer, announced that it had teamed up with Diageo PLC, the world’s largest liquor company, with a plan to triple the shelf space that store would devote to selling beer, wine, and spirits.

Since then, Wal-Mart stores across the country have applied for licenses to sell alcohol, with varying degrees of success. Many Super Wal-Mart’s across the country already sell wine and beer, and more and more are starting to stock hard liquor as well. “We're putting hard liquor in our stores where we can," stated John Westling, Wal-Mart's senior vice president for nonperishable food. "This is an area where we are focused on growing sales." Wal-Mart’s venture into alcohol retail is part of the store’s enterprise to become a global one-stop superstore, which caters to as many consumer needs as possible. Since 1998, Wal-Mart has been selling groceries in many of its stores as a part of the same aspiration, and has since become the largest grocery retailer in the US, controlling about 20% of the national market. The Amador County Board of Supervisors will vote on our local Wal-Mart’s application to sell beer and wine at a future board meeting.

Read 574 times Last modified on Wednesday, 19 August 2009 01:57