Waupaca OKs online liquor sales
By Angie Landsverk
Pick ‘n Save is preparing to offer its online ordering service in Waupaca but needed the premise description of its liquor license amended first.
The request was approved on April 3, after Mayor Brian Smith broke a 5-5 tie vote on it.
“This would be a departure of what we’ve done in the past,” Ald. Paul Hagen said prior to the council’s vote.
He was referring to Waupaca’s local ordinance that does not allow alcohol sales within grocery stores, convenience stores or gas stations.
In 2000, the ordinance was amended to allow grocery stores to sell alcohol in separate buildings.
The ordinance was amended again in 2011, allowing convenience stores and gas stations to do so with a check-out area serving both sides of the business.
Pick ‘n Save’s online ordering service also allows customers to order alcohol and tobacco products.
Brieanna Cotten told the council the staging area usually requires shelving, a cooler and a freezer.
It is often in the front area of the store, she said.
Cotten is Roundy’s assistant real estate manager.
The location of the staging area concerned Hagen.
He said the council has always held that there is no alcohol in grocery stores.
Another concern was the ability for someone who is underage to steal alcohol from a staging area in the grocery store.
Smith said he hoped Hagen’s concern was considered if the request to approve the premise description was approved.
Cotten said alcohol could be staged in a separate area.
She also said there are numerous surveillance cameras in the store.
All members of the common council were present when the vote ended in the tie.
Voting in favor of the motion were Alan Kjelland, Paul Mayou, Dave Peterson, Mary Phair and Scott Purchatzke.
Lori Chesnut, Steve Hackett, Paul Hagen, Eric Olson and Chuck Whitman voted against it.
The mayor holds a liquor license in the city.
Before voting yes, he asked City Attorney John Hart if that put him in conflict with the request.
Hart said Smith does not own a grocery store.
The mayor then voted yes.
Roundy’s plans
The approval amends the store’s premise description for its liquor license to include the parking stalls designated for the online ordering service and the pathway to get to them.
“We’ve been implementing this across the state of Wisconsin,” Cotten said.
During the last year and a half, she has been traveling throughout the state to make presentations about the service.
It will be available here from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
After a customer submits an online order, a store employee selects the items and tags age-sensitive ones.
Customers choose what time they want to pick up their orders, park in the store’s designated parking stalls for the service and then call the phone number on the sign.
Employees trained for the service are age 18 or older and hold a municipal-issued bartender’s license.
State law allows individuals 18 and older to have a bartender’s license, the mayor noted.
A customer’s age is verified when store associates deliver an order to the designated parking area.
Cotten said company policy is to check the ID of every person purchasing alcohol, regardless of age.
A hand-held point-of-sale device is used to process customers’ credit or debit cards in the designated parking area.
The first three times a customer uses the service, it is free, Cotten said.
After that, it comes with a fee, which will be $4.95 here.