A sign tells part of the story at the 15th and John Safeway (Image: CHS)
Just when the neighborhoods around 15th and John apparently needed it most, the liquor aisle inside this Capitol Hill Safeway is off-limits.
How does a major grocery chain lose its license to sell booze in the middle of Seattle’s pandemic-driven surge in alcohol sales?
The grocery store has had its alcohol retailer license temporarily suspended from May 7 through 22. To keep customers away from the alcohol aisle, the shop has barricaded the entrances with stacks of chips and other goods.
According to Julie Graham of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, the temporary suspension resulted from sales violation, the store’s third reported violation in sales to minors over a two-year period.
“If there were further violations in the future, the consequences would likely be more severe because certainly with increased violations comes increased sanctions,” Graham said.
This fifteen day suspension is the result of a compromise sanction, Graham said, in which the original 30 day suspension from April 13 to May 13 was cut in half to go along with a $2,500 penalty payment.
Of the three instances that the 15th and John Safeway was found selling to a minor during the last two years, the consequences have become more severe — the second resulted in a larger fine than the first and the present sanction involves both a fine and a suspension, according to Graham.
The underage sale of alcohol was uncovered during routine WSLCB compliance inspections to check that stores selling age-restricted products are following protocol, according to Graham. She said that the WSLCB sends in underage individuals to attempt to purchase alcohol to determine whether a retailer is following the law.
Safeway now has signs on the interior and exterior of the store stating that “liquor shall not be removed, sold, delivered, served or consumed at this establishment during the period of this suspension.”
Representatives for the company have not responded for comment.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
Serves them right. 2 wks ago they refused service to this sober, well dressed 72 yr old solely because I left my ID at home. They then decided to publicly humiliate me in the process I guess for entertainment value. I said nothing to provoke. In fact, I barely said anything. This is how to treat a regular? I have no trouble like this anywhere else on the Hill or any other Sfwy. I did report it to Kroger HQ.
Safeway isn’t kroger though, but good try!
State laws say you must have ID on hand to buy alcohol. Doesnt matter how old you are, or how old you look, or if the checker is even your own child. No ID, no booze. Sorry about your luck.
That’s just not true.
Fiction:
State law requires the identification (ID) to be checked of anyone purchasing alcohol.
Fact:
There is no state law that requires licensees to check every patron’s ID. However, state law does prohibit licensees/employees from selling alcohol to anyone under the age of 21. In order to ensure alcohol is only being furnished to people over 21 years of age, ID should be checked for age verification of anyone appearing youthful.
So the LCB is still paying undercover kids to go into grocery stores, unnecessarily crowding them, just to have them try to buy alcohol without an ID and bust the store? That doesn’t sound essential…
I wondered about that when I saw this story. Seems pretty unessential n the midst of a public health emergency.
Without a liquor license means less pandhanders hanging around.
oh. they just move a couple blocks away to the dueling pot stores. I wish those places never opened.
I was in the store on the day they got shut down. I asked the cashier at the front what happened. She turned around, picked up the phone and called a cashier 2 lanes away. After a brief hushed conversation she hung up the phone turned around and said the section was closed for cleaning. Deep cleaning. You can’t be too careful these days.
She then said: ‘I know you don’t believe me. But that’s what they told me to say’.
Cool.
Lol.
Or, poor, poor Safeway employees.
Always good when forced to parrot a clearly bs line and then ending it with, “we both realize this is pure bs I was just forced to regurgitate, don’t we?”
Oh, corporations….
How could this happen? I’m in my fifties and have never not been carded there.
This fifteen day suspension is the result of a compromise sanction, Graham said, in which the original 30 day suspension from April 13 to May 13 was cut in half to go along with a $2,500 penalty payment.
It’s amazing how when corporations get caught blatantly red handed breaking the law, you hear a lot of a “compromise sanctions” (look at Well’s Fargo’s various “settlements” over the years), but for some reason, people don’t get that same luxury when even just accused of breaking the law.
On the other hand, we do live in a corporatocracy, so I shouldn’t be too surprised.
Plea bargains. Contested tickets. Reduced sentences. Probation. Parole. People get consideration all the time in the eyes of the law. Not just corporations.
….negotiated $$ settlements, time served, traffic school, warnings…. Yup.
What a garbage archaic entity these liquor control boards are… 3 underage sales in 2 years, give me a break. Dismantle these prohibition era relics.