Abilene consumers now can buy beer and wine in a store not generally associated with liquor sales.
Dollar General, 1290 Butternut St., began selling beer and wine in August after receiving a retail liquor license.
Dollar General public relations representatives declined to comment on which stores sell liquor and were applying for liquor licenses. However, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the store on Butternut received its retail liquor license July 30.
TABC records also show four other Abilene Dollar General stores that have applications for liquor licenses pending. Those stores are at 3726 Catclaw Drive, 2926 S. 27th St., 630 S. Leggett Drive and 6617 Buffalo Gap Road.
“We believe we are offering our customers a more convenient alternative to other retailers who sell beer, such as grocery stores,” Tawn Earnest, spokeswoman with Dollar General, told the Abilene Reporter-News in an e-mail Monday.
She explained that if any stores had applied for liquor licenses, it had nothing to do with the recent liquor law election where voters approved making the dry areas of the city limits wet, which included the Wylie area and one Dollar General store.
“We have been selling beer in a number of our stores since last year,” Earnest pointed out. The company started experimenting with liquor sales in some of its stores two years ago, according to various news reports.
Dollar General Corp. has been making beer and wine available for sale in stores throughout the southeast. Earnest told The Associated Press this week that the company expects to eventually offer beer and/or wine in about half of its stores. The company has about 9,000 stores nationwide. The corporate headquarters is located in Goodlettsville, Tenn.
According to an Associated Press article, consumables or grocery staples make up about 70 percent of Dollar General’s total revenue, which is different for similar retailers like Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, where food and drink purchases make up about half the sales.
Earnest declined to comment on how liquor sells were going for the retail chain.
That is pretty big news right there. It not everyday a retailer of that size take on a whole new department. They are going to sell a lot. I wonder how the competitiors will respond over the next year?
ReplyDeleteDo you think this will change the demographics of their market?
ReplyDeleteIf they move on this as fast as they have been putting up stores this could be a landfall for them. I just wondered if they already know before building all of these new stores how many lie in dry option counties? I do think that this will change the demographics of their market.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious if this would influence the company's shrinkage due to theft. I know in the past that has been a major problem for DG (not just customers, but employee theft as well).
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