While I haven't made up my mind regarding the wet-dry election. I do have a question.
The whole time during the signature-gathering petition phase and now, we have been told of the insatiable demand for alcohol by Dallas residents and how it's a pain to drive to other neighborhoods for liquor when your neighborhood is dry.
To the right is a picture of the former Majestic Liquor store located just north of Greenville and Walnut Hill. This store sits 2 blocks south of the wet/dry line.
The store was renovated (and proudly displayed on Majestic's website) in 2006 to the tune of about $800,000. A month ago, Majestic's parent company (which includes the Red Coleman's chain of stores) filed for bankruptcy and this store was closed in the past couple of weeks.
Here's the question: if there is so much uncaptured revenue with respect to liquor sales in Dallas, with supposed reports of affluent city residents having to drive miles to buy liquor, why was this store closed? If they're picking and choosing which ones stay open, wouldn't you keep the one open that's right near the wet/dry line and surrounded by affluent neighborhoods?
4 comments:
Michael, the wet/dry election is not about liquor, it's about beer and wine. People want to be able to buy beer and wine at their local grocery store. The lost revenue is from people who drive to the Kroger or Tom Thumb in Plano to buy all of their groceries plus beer and wine instead of going to the dry store in their north Dallas neighborhood. In addition to the lost sales tax revenue, most of the major grocers are done building in Dallas because the remaining sites are dry and they can make more money going to wet sites in neighboring cities. So, by changing this obsolete law, we not only recapture important tax revenues - we also encourage new development which means jobs. But, it is important to note, this does not effect the sale of liquor one bit.
That's exactly the point. And maybe I used liquor as a catch-all phrase but the question remains the same. This store sold all of the above, which is why it was located just inside that "wet" boundary limit in North Dallas. You'd think that based on the pro-sides arguments it would be thriving. Maybe it's an anomaly, but I'm curious to why this store closed.
Also, Kroger said they they will not building any stores in southern Dallas, keeping only the one tired store at Wynnewood.
Again, I have not made up my mind with respect to the vote.
Kroger has said they are not planning any stores at this time, but that could always change if this passes ... they're not going to commit to a quid pro quo, but they fact remains that they do want to build more stores and southern Dallas is the biggest development opportunity out there.
There is just not a good reason to be against this - all of our neighboring cities allow beer and wine sales in retail stores and none of them have experienced of the scary results that the liquor lobby would have you believe. Plus this could bring $20-30 million in new sales tax revenue that we desperately need, and that could help keep our pools, rec centers and libraries open.
First off, no one in Oak Cliff should worry about grocery stores. The Latino population continues to increase here and with their influx more grocery stores will open. Latinos like to cook at home and spend a lot of money at grocery store regardless of beer and wine sales. Second, the only reason folks want to increase the sale of beer and wine in Oak Cliff and so Dallas can recoup lost money that is now going to Hucthins, Duncanville, Balch Springs, and Cockrell Hill. These are Southern Dallas suburbs and are able to capture the taxes from the sales and spend that money in Southern Dallas County. If you allow alcohol sales in Dallas then the money spent in Oak Cliff will go back into North Dallas. That is history and fact. Look at wet Oak Lawn. Now look at wet South Dallas. Why does Second Avenue look like it does? The street should be covered in gold with all the alcohol sales that came along that street from years past. Then Balch Springs started selling alcohol. If I lived in Plansant Grove I would take my money to Balch Springs. At least I know that money will be spent closer to my house on roads, creeks, jobs.
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