Members of the Prince George’s County Council are asking state lawmakers to approve a program that would allow some stores to sell beer and wine if they’re willing to open in food deserts.
Nearing the end of her first term, Prince George’s County Council member Krystal Oriadha, sponsor of more legislation than most if not all of her colleagues, would define legislative success with a goal that’s more modest than you might think.
“If I could get a grocery store to come to Seat Pleasant before I leave office, it’d be probably one of the single most best things I was able to do our community,” she said.
“I live in Seat Pleasant, and it’s my district and we lost the grocery store, and we have not been able to get one to come back and be able to survive.”
Could giving a grocery store the chance to sell beer and wine, something that the grocery industry tries to legalize statewide every year, become profitable enough that they turn a profit? She’s hoping to give it a try.
Oriadha and her colleagues on the council are asking state lawmakers to approve a pilot program that would allow stores to sell beer and wine if they’re willing to open in what are considered food deserts — and no where else around the state.
“If we give them the ability to have a beer and wine license, no matter where they are, what’s the incentive for them to come inside of the beltway?” she asked. “So making it that if you come inside of the beltway, you do get this incentive.”
A limited incentive for widespread change
Unlike most pilot programs, this one wouldn’t sunset. But it also would be extremely limited — as few as one or two stores willing to open where they won’t open right now would be able to take advantage. Oriadha is hoping it can incentivize the change she’s pushing for, while satisfying a liquor industry she feels works against her community.
“We have to do what’s best for the people that send us the office, right? And it’s not the industry. It’s not the liquor store owners. The majority of them do not live in Prince George’s County,” she said.
“And the reality is that you have constituents that don’t have places to get food. That’s the reality. And so at some point we have to put them first. That would be my argument.”
But for all the complaints people in her district voice about the number of liquor stores already operating there, that industry isn’t the focus of this push.
It’s coming up with a way to find bigger profit margins for grocery stores that consistently tell the county the reason they won’t open in places like Seat Pleasant is because they can’t turn a profit.
“The real goal is to bring grocery stores into communities that historically don’t have them,” she said.
“We understand that we have to incentivize that, and so we look at adding beer and wine as an incentive toward them to come into areas that don’t have grocery stores.”
But while it’s a local problem, it’ll be up to state lawmakers to decide whether this is the right solution.
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John Domen
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