Great Barrington — Ten months after the Selectboard denied a liquor license to the Price Chopper store, located at 300 Stockbridge Rd., the board is willing to review the company’s application again. Representatives from the company spoke to the board during the Selectboard’s regular meeting on Monday, February 27.
As he has done with previous decisions concerning liquor permits, Selectboard member Garfield Reed recused himself from the discussion because he works at Plaza Package Store on State Road.
Originally, the Selectboard rejected the company’s application at its meeting on May 23. At the meeting, Chair Stephen Bannon and Vice-Chair Leigh Davis voted to approve the license, while Selectboard members Eric Gabriel and Ed Abrahams voted against granting the license. A tie vote meant that the license would be rejected.
At the February 27 meeting, Price Chopper President Blaine Bringhurst spoke on behalf of the store. Bringhurst told the Selectboard that the Great Barrington location has been open for 27 years. “What we would like to do is take our current existing store, expand it, and rebrand it into a Market 32,” Bringhurst said. “The expansion would not be big but would add about 8,000 square feet to the left of our building in some empty space. The expansion would provide us the opportunity to improve our variety of fresh foods significantly, including in our produce, seafood, and meat departments.”
Bringhurst said that the company would invest $4 million into the store’s expansion. “The way to make this work is to do all of these things, and also have a wine and malt license for the store,” Bringhurst said. “It’s a draw that brings consumers into our stores. As of today, our store is at a disadvantage to the rest of our competitors in the town of Great Barrington who have a license. As you know, wine and malt are a draw year round, most significantly at holidays and for special events. Without the ability to sell it, we lose customer count, and therefore we don’t grow our sales. It’s really important for us in the long-term viability of the store that we can obtain this license and be able to satisfy those customer needs.”
Bringhurst said that if the store loses sales, the company would have to cut back on the store’s operating hours. While he did not directly say it, Bringhurst hinted that this would mean a cutback in working hours for store employees. “We don’t want to affect our teammate’s livelihoods by cutting back hours,” he said. “Once you get into that cycle, and unfortunately it just did, things are rarely in a situation that they get better.”
David Wright, president of the Paragon Realty Group that owns the shopping plaza the store is in, spoke in support of Price Chopper. “Our discussions with [Price Chopper] have been pretty clear that if [the liquor license] does not happen, then renewal of their lease is very much in question,” Wright said. “I can’t stress enough how important Price Chopper is to [the shopping center’s] long-term viability. The grocery anchor is the lifeblood of the other tenants. The reason almost all the small tenants are there is because they want to be by the dominant grocery store where people are coming in a vibrant shopping center with a lot of activity. We don’t think of the possibility of having a shopping center with a 50,000 square foot hole in it.”
Company representatives said that, if the liquor license is approved, the beer and wine would be confined to a single store aisle, and that there would not be any advertising or merchandising of beer and wine outside of the aisle.
After company representatives spoke, Selectboard member Abrahams, who originally voted against the company’s liquor license application, seemed to have changed his mind. “I was against this, but on the other hand I’m very practical, and this is a very important thing to have in town,” Abrahams said.
Bannon said that the Selectboard would schedule a new public hearing, but did not specify a date.
The company operates 131 stores in six states, with 15 locations in Massachusetts.
