SNOW HILL – Officials agreed to grant a liquor license to a Pocomoke store despite opposition from some community members.
A month after hearing the request from the new connections of Shore Spirits in Pocomoke, the Worcester County Board of License Commissioners (BLC) voted 3-0 to grant it a beer wine and liquor license.
“It appears there is a need and desire for a liquor store in that community,” BLC member Marty Pusey said.
Shore Spirits, long a Worcester County store, was put up for sale this spring. Though the owner of a Millsboro liquor store agreed to purchase it, the sale was contingent upon him being granted a liquor license for the Pocomoke store.
On behalf of the new owner, attorney Mark Cropper presented Shore Spirits’ license request last month. Cropper said his client wanted to take over the store, which the county had operated since 2007, and to add beer to its liquor and wine inventory. County officials told the board the store had been profitable and was the longest established of the stores in the area selling alcohol.
The connections of Newtown Market, a beer and wine store in the same shopping center as Shore Spirits, opposed the license request. Their attorney, Hugh Cropper, introduced several individuals, including the mayor of Pocomoke, who also opposed the request. They said residents were able to purchase liquor at nearby Don’s Seafood and that the small town wouldn’t be able to support two stores–Newtown Market and Shore Spirits–with such similar inventory in the same shopping center. Hugh Cropper also said his clients purchased Newtown Market in 2015 with the intention of seeking a liquor license for the store, though state law wouldn’t allow them to do it until July.
The board delayed its decision on the matter to Wednesday’s meeting.
“This is a very difficult and confounding situation primarily because the county has a change in law which has resulted in the distribution of liquor now being available in the private sector,” Pusey said.
She said that while the county was getting out of the liquor business, Pocomoke had been home to a county liquor store since the 1970s. She added that sales figures had shown that Shore Spirits had been profitable and that it had coexisted with Newtown Market for several years.
While the addition of beer to its inventory would put Shore Spirits in direct competition with Newtown Market, Pusey pointed out that it was expected to make up just 15 percent of Shore Spirits’ inventory.
“Competition alone cannot be the sole consideration for denying an application,” she said.
BLC member Charles Nichols said the applicant had shown the need for the license.
“There’s a been a dispensary there since 1970 in that general area and since 2007 in that location,” he said.
William Esham, chairman of the BLC, agreed. He said the applicant had no liquor law violations at his Delaware store.
He said that when the connections of Newtown Market purchased it in 2015 the county store was in operation. The fact that the county store’s sales figures exceed $1 million the last few years proved need, Esham said.
“Mr. Hugh Cropper and his client showed that they believed there was a public need because they wanted us to turn down this application so they could come in and ask for the same license in July,” he added.
