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Central OR Liquor Retailers Sought By OLCC

BEND, OR  -- Oregon's Liquor Control Commission hopes to expand the number of distilled spirits retailers in Central and Eastern Oregon. Christy Scott, with the OLCC's Bend office, says, "One of the things that we've been hearing over the last several  years, is that customers are really looking for added convenience for distilled spirits. There's a lot of popularity around distilled spirits; you know, whiskey is a huge booming category. And, as the popularity increases, people are looking for better access to it."

 

She says it's really a question of supply and demand in rural areas, "This is a very large area, a 14-county area." And, supply has not kept up here or across Oregon. "If you look at the number of beer and wine retailers that we have compared to distilled spirits retailers, we have less than 300 distilled spirits retailers across the state; and we have thousands of beer and wine retailers across the state."

 

The OLCC is asking people to apply, and Scott tells KBND News applicants should be innovative, "You want to do a full-service liquor store, then send a proposal in for a full-service liquor store. If you're a grocery store and you want to add a distilled spirits section - or, let's say you have another retail business like shoes or records or whatever it may be and you want to add a distilled spirits section to that, send your proposal in for that, as well."

 

The agency will host a town hall June 14, 2-4 p.m. at the downtown Bend Library, to answer questions about the process. Applications will be accepted through July 31. They're expected to approve 10 new retailers in October. The state is on pace to add 43 locations over the next two years. 

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