Business & Tech

Should Walmart Neighborhood Market be Allowed to Sell Alcohol?

Walmart officials want to sell alcohol at their newly opened grocery store on Elk Grove Boulevard.

The Elk Grove Planning Commission will consider the request from Walmart Neighborhood Market at its June 20 meeting, and city staff support the proposal.

Walmart has to seek the city's permission before requesting a liquor license for the store because state criteria say the area is over-concentrated with licenses and is high-crime. The planning commission will consider a use permit and a letter of public convenience for Walmart, allowing the store to request a liquor license from the state.

"According to ABC, two licenses are allowed in this census tract before it is considered to be overconcentrated, but seven licenses exist (this store would be the eighth)," a planning commission staff report states.

A letter from Elk Grove's police chief says the store is located is in an area where a large number of theft and burglary crimes occurred last year, partially because Walmart has its own loss-prevention staff. But he says the police department doesn't object to the Walmart Neighborhood Market getting a liquor license.

"Due to the nature of sales associated with a Type 21 license [a liquor license for off-site sale of beer, wine and hard liquor] and the likelihood of a redistribution (rather than an increase) associated with alcohol-related crimes as well as a credible and cooperative applicant, we do not have a public safety-related objection to the issuance of a Letter of Public Convenience and Necessity," Elk Grove Police Chief Robert Lehner writes to planning staff.

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Elk Grove Planning Commission meeting
6:30 p.m. June 20
Elk Grove City Council Chambers, 8400 Laguna Palms Way

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