More gas stations cleared to sell booze

| 12/04/2017 | 4 Comments
CNS Business

Peanuts gas station at Red Bay

(CNS Business): Once, only a very small number of gas stations in Cayman were allowed to sell liquor but another six were added to the list following a recent liquor licensing board meeting and one has even been cleared to sell alcohol on Sundays. However, there appear to be some inequities emerging from the board’s decisions as several applications from liquor stores were refused Sunday licences.

The new Peanuts store at the Red Bay Rubis station, which was already selling alcohol, was the one gas station cleared to sell it on Sundays as well.

Meanwhile, Mike’s Esso on Seven Mile Beach (formerly Delworths Esso), Brown’s Esso stations in Red Bay and the industrial area of George Town, Jose’s Rubis station on Crewe Road and the Rubis on Seven Mile Beach have been granted what are known as package liquor licences, which allow alcohol to be sold on weekdays but not on Sundays.

The law only permits bulk sales of a six-pack of beer or more to be allowed on Sundays under a “retail licence”, which is what was granted to Peanuts.

Five of the gas stations, including Peanuts, were granted licences after representations made by local attorney Cline Glidden, a former MLA who now works at Ogiers. In a release, the law firm claimed that these were the first liquor licences secured for gas stations for at least 20 years.

Getting a Sunday licence to sell alcohol is still not easy for liquor stores, as the law does not permit the Liquor Licensing Board to extend the typical package licences held by most liquor stores to open all week, and the board refused several applications at the March meeting.

“The legislation that governs liquor licensing is quite restrictive, with some categories restricting the types of variations that can be granted by the board,” said Glidden. “We were very pleased to be able to advise our clients through this process and get them to the outcome that they wanted.”

See the LLB agenda and decisions in the CNS Library

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Category: Local Business, Retail

Comments (4)

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  1. kingos123 says:

    Gas stations and booze… isn’t that a potentially dangerous combination? Why encourage drivers to buy some booze where they buy fuel? So they can drink while driving?

  2. Anonymous says:

    All this inconvenience, just because we have to live by mr. Eden’s rules.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Don’t see why grocery stores can’t sell at least wine and beer too.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Just get rid of all this red tape. Not a big deal if a retail store desires to sell alcohol and who cares if someone wants to buy/sell on a Sunday if the store is already open that day anyway.

    Open things up and prices go down and selection goes up. .

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