Wilmette trustees on April 26 granted a liquor license to a downtown Walgreens store, despite objections from some neighbors.
Granting an “I” class packaged liquor license to the Walgreens store at 811 Green Bay Road won’t turn Wilmette from a bucolic Bedford Falls to a raucous Pottersville, Village President Bob Bielinski said at the April 26 meeting.
“That’s my favorite movie, too,” Bielinski said in response to an earlier plea from Park Avenue resident Greg Mayer, who cited Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” when he spoke against the license.
Without hero George Bailey’s presence, quiet Bedford Falls turns into a town filled with neon signs and alcohol, Mayer said: “I think we’d rather be more like Bedford Falls than Pottersville.”
“But we’re not Pottersville,” Bielinski responded, before voting in favor of creating the license. “And we don’t look anything like Pottersville. Because we’re responsible about it.”
The license will help keep the store competitive with nearby businesses that also offer alcohol, he said. That includes two businesses further south on Green Bay: Foremost Liquor at 275 Green Bay and the Jewel-Osco grocery at 411 Green Bay, as well as nearby boutique alcohol businesses such as Wilmette Wine Cellar, at 1100 Central Ave.
Other trustees agreed. The nature of retail businesses like Walgreens has changed, Trustee Julie Wolf said, and becoming a one-stop shopping location that can offer liquor makes sense in that context.
The case required two hearings this February by the Board’s judiciary committee, which reviews liquor license requests before they go to the full Board. The Walgreens request must still go to Bielinski in his role as Wilmette’s liquor control commissioner for final approval.
Once he does so, Walgreens officials plan to add 12 feet of shelf space for wine and beer. That adds up to roughly half an aisle’s worth of alcohol, two coolers for cold beer, and roughly two feet of shelf space for spirit alcohol, Walgreens representative Donovan Pepper said.
Trustee Senta Plunkett, who sits on the committee, said neighbors’ fears that teenagers from local high schools would try to buy alcohol at the store were misplaced.
“This would be the last place that any high schooler is going to want to buy alcohol at, because you’re going to run into your friend’s mom” at the store, she said.
Fellow committee member Carol Ducommun lauded Walgreens officials for meeting with neighbors and voluntarily changing some of its plans for alcohol sales.
That included moving any alcohol that isn’t beer or wine behind a counter, Pepper said.
Wilmette Police Chief Brian King told the Board that his department has found no problem with underage alcohol sales at the Edens Plaza Walgreens.
The Deerfield-based company has reintroduced alcohol to many of its stores nationally over the past few years, Pepper said, and although alcohol sales would probably represent only 2 to 5 percent of the two Wilmette stores’ sales, those sales bring customers into the store, which strengthens general sales and helps fight a drop in the business of many Walgreens stores, he said.
He said he understood residents’ concerns about increased delivery truck traffic and general traffic in the store’s small parking lot and the alley behind the store. Walgreens will add a speed bump to its alley entryway, he said, and will take other actions to minimize traffic impact.
The store will also enhance its safety measures with security cameras. Staff are trained and will card anyone who looks 40 years of age or younger, Pepper said.
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