Members of the Marshall County Alcoholic Beverage Commission met Tuesday morning at 10 in the second-floor meeting room of the County Building for their monthly meeting.
There were two businesses that received automatic renewals of their alcohol permits because they had no violations in the past year. The Plymouth American Legion Posts 27 on East Jefferson Street had their Beer, Wine, and Liquor Fraternal Club permit renewed and B & G Petroleum at 795 Michigan Street in LaPaz, commonly known as the Arbys Gas Station had their Beer and Wine Grocery permit renewed.
The Aldi grocery store at 2170 North Oak Drive in Plymouth had an alcohol compliance check violation in January of this year so they had to appear before the local board requesting a renewal of their Beer and Wine Grocery permit.
District Managers Andrew Hartkorn and Kaylee Sutliff appeared before the local board who wanted to know what had happened in the violation and why the clerk didn’t check the ID. They also asked about the store policy on alcohol sales.
Hartkorn said a female shopper came into the store and selected a bottle of wine. When she went to check out the cashier “bypassed” the birth date insert in the cash register system, so it didn’t prompt her to check the ID.
Since the violation, all Plymouth Aldi cashiers have signed Aldi’s National Alcohol Policy and reviewed the procedures in place to avoid the sale of alcohol to someone under the age of 21. Hartkorn said store policy is to card anyone who appears to be under 40-year-of-age. They are required to show a driver’s license or government-issued ID with a photo. If ID is not available the cashier will apologize and refuse to sell the alcohol product. He also commented that when a new employee is hired, the store manager reads the alcohol policy to the employee, so they are sure they have a full understanding of the policy.
ABC member Jan Fisher asked how a cashier can avoid inserting a birth date and was told if the customer appears to be over 40 there is a procedure that doesn’t require a birth date.
Excise Officer Michelle Traughber commented that the decoys sent in with an excise officer are between 18 and 20 and don’t look anywhere close to 40. Her comment was that the cashier didn’t even take time to look at the customer because they would have realized by her appearance that she was young and should have requested a photo ID.
After additional discussion, the Marshall County Alcohol Beverage Commission approved the renewal after it was confirmed that Aldi paid the $1,000 fee for the alcohol compliance check violation.
