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Medicinal alcohol could be coming to Downtown Crossing
By adamg on Sat, 08/11/2012 - 10:24am
Walgreens goes before the Boston Licensing Board on Wednesday for permission to sell booze in the old Downtown Crossing Borders it's currently turning into a mega-drugstore.
The chain has applied for an "all alcohol" license which, if granted, would let it sell everything from beer and wine to gin and vodka. Walgreens has proposed turning 1,500 square feet of the store's mezzanine into a "liquor sale area."
Earlier this year, the chain announced plans for an upscale "emporium" in the former Borders that would include everything from a sushi bar to a hair salon.
If Walgreens does win a license, it would not be the first Boston drugstore to sell liquor. Melvin Pharmacy on Comm. Ave. in Brighton has sold liquor since Prohibition, when it won a license to sell liquor for medicinal purposes.
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Comments
I'm all for it
And while they're at it, allow them to sell 'tobacco products'. Alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal products for adults, the city has no business trying to prevent their sale. How much time and $ do liquor store spend to lobby city hall to ban liquor sales in locations other than packies? All grocery store and convenience stores should be allowed to get a liquor license.
This is how it rolls in many other parts of the country, why not here?
Liberal fascism?
Liberal fascism?
ask that bastion of liberalism
New Hampshire.
There seems to be no support for private liquor markets there, from either the government, or the residents that enjoy cheap, monopoly booze.
It also tends to decrease margins, and thus prices, on wine and beer too; since they need to compete.
I don't see any real harm in
I don't see any real harm in Walgreen's getting a liquor license. But you're argument that the city has no business in preventing the sale of things that adults can use legally is wrong. Adults can legally own firearms. In fact that is a constitutionally protected civil liberty, but few people would argue that any store should therefore be able to sell ammo and guns.
Selling alcohol isn't the same as selling potato chips. Increased alcohol consumption is related to increased levels of domestic violence and drunken driving (and in Boston increased levels of falling in front of MBTA trains). Therefore, the gov't serves the public good via reasonable regulation.
Not that long ago
Ok, maybe it was, but Woolworths in Downtown Crossing used to sell rifles and ammo. And parakeets.
Well I'm looking forward to
Well I'm looking forward to the "eyebrow grooming bar."
Back when I was a wee lad
I grew up out in the boonies. The local pharmacy,owned by the pharmacist of course,used to have a shelf with about a half dozen different types of hard liquor. He had one brand of each type (whiskey,gin,etc.) and maybe two bottles of each brand. He didn't have beer and I'm not sure about wine. I don't think he sold much, as it was higher in price than anywhere else. I assume he could sell it on Sundays,if a doctor prescribed a nice Hot Toddie for the "Flu".
Selling alcohol in that pivotal location
I just wonder if an establishment selling alcohol in that pivotal location will cause it to become even more of a concentrated gathering place for aggressive panhandling and intoxicated behavior by a segment of the homeless population than it already is. They tend to congregate at the entrances and surrounding areas of such places, soliciting donations to buy booze. The convenience store on Atlantic Avenue near the Aquarium that sells booze being an example. I also notice that some of the benches in front of the former Border's, often frequented by very intoxicated homeless people, were removed some time ago, but I don't know the specific reason.
Conditions, we got yer conditions right here
Couple of things: Walgreens is going for the "European" boutique look, whatever that means, so I suspect they will be relatively aggressive with the drunken-homeless-guy ilk as they try to make this store the sort of place all the highly paid Downtown Crossing condo owners would want to patronize (and yes, there are a fair number of them now, with highly paid Downtown Crossing apartment renters coming in droves soon).
And the licensing board could, as it's done in the past for these sort of hybrid stores that aren't traditional liquor stores, require that the store not sell nips and single cans of beer.
if memory serves,
there was also a pharmacy in Cleveland Circle that sold booze on Sundays (for medicinal purposes only!)during the late 1960's. Then again,considering the '60s, my memory could well be faulty.