Drinking beer at convenience store creates controversy

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

BOYD

Country Club Market, a local convenience store that was the center of controversy when its owner, Zack Ayoub, had his beer license suspended for 90 days for first offense of selling to a minor, may be the center of controversy again when customers are ordered not to drink beer on the premises, a practice that has reportedly been ongoing outside the store for some time.

The store’s license has been reinstated after the 90-day suspension, and when it recently changed hands, new owner Ramesh Patel applied to transfer the license into his name. But during a meeting of the Safety Committee, which now functions as the county’s Beer Board, Patel was informed by Safety Committee chairman David Grissom the current permit does not allow on-site alcohol consumption.

Patel expressed concern because some customers drink the beer outside the market in the picnic table area.

“I don’t know how it’s been done, but they’ve done that for years,” committee member Teddy Boyd said.

Commissioner Les Trotman questioned the practice.

“They may have done it for years,” Trotman said, “but if it’s not an on-premises permit, they’re not supposed to.”

Patel, who will be taking over the business Jan. 31, said he had been told otherwise.

“They have told me right now they have permission to drink beer outside,” Patel said.

Trotman explained, despite what Patel had been told, that wasn’t the case with the current permit.

“The law is if you have an off-premises permit,” Trotman said, “all you can do is sell the beer and they have to leave your property before they can drink it. If they take that beer and they walk over to your picnic table and they open it, then what they’ve done is put you in violation of your permit.”

County Executive Kenneth Rogers agreed.

“If you sell beer and they drink it on your premises,” Rogers said, “then you stand a good chance of losing your license.” Rogers advised Patel to inform customers of the regulations and to report them to authorities if they violated them.

Boyd said on-site consumption has been a problem for some time.

“You used to go by there at 7:30 in the morning,” Boyd said, “and the Bridgestone bunch would be sitting there and I’d think, man, that’s awful early to be doing something like that, but they worked third shift.”

“It was happy hour for them,” quipped Commissioner Sally Brock.

The Safety Committee voted unanimously to transfer the off-premises license to Patel, but they made it clear they disapproved of on-site alcohol consumption, as did other local authorities, including District Attorney Dale Potter.

“It creates an enforcement problem for the troopers and some of the others,” Potter said Friday, “and I know that some of the troopers have complained in the past they don’t think that’s right.”

Potter said he hoped the regulations would be enforced in future.

“We don’t need people drinking at convenience stores,” he said.