Customers who stopped to grab a six-pack last weekend at the Callow Avenue Safeway left empty handed.
Shoppers found the
alcohol aisle shrouded in black plastic. An orange sign
warned the store’s liquor license had been suspended from Aug. 13
through Aug. 18.
How did one of Bremerton’s busiest grocery stores get its liquor license temporarily pulled?
Through a series of missteps, according to a spokesman for the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board.
It began in June, when the Safeway was cited for selling alcohol to a minor during a routine compliance check.
Because it was the store’s first citation in the past two years, management was given the choice of a $500 fine or five-day suspension (repeat offenders are automatically suspended).
Naturally, the store chose to pay the fine.
The problem, according to the Liquor and Cannabis spokesman, was Safeway failed to deliver a check to the board within the 20 days allotted for payment. Missing the deadline triggered a five-day suspension and the orange signs went up.
How unusual is it for a store to get its liquor license suspended? Pretty unusual, it turns out.
In the past 12 months the Callow Safeway was the only store in Kitsap County to have a suspension handed down.
