After protest, city says 'no' to alcohol at Family Dollar stores

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There are plenty of places to buy beer across Louisville, but don't include Family Dollar on that list.

Months ago, the discount retailer applied for licenses to sell alcohol at 22 of its Louisville stores. Kenneth Miles, who lives in west Louisville, wasn't pleased when he learned the news.

"I'm thinking we don't need anymore," he said. "Liquor stores and churches ... You can find it on most any corner, but the churches are starting to leave, and the liquor stores is taking over."

But after protests and strong opinions from people like Miles, the city denied requests for "Retail Malt Beverage Package Licenses" from all 22 stores, which is good news to Metro Councilwoman Jessica Green.

"They were concentrated, primarily, in west Louisville and neighborhoods filled with people of color and people of low socioeconomic status," Green said.

In the denials, the city cited plenty of specifics. For one of the stores in the Portland neighborhood, the city's director of Alcohol, Beverage & Control wrote the store was denied partly because the neighborhood has the second highest alcohol/drug related death rate in the city. For another store in the California neighborhood, the request was denied, in part, because there are 20 other spots that sell alcohol within a mile of the Family Dollar location. For a store in the Russell neighborhood, they denied the request partly because the area has the highest adult poverty rates in the city: 52 percent.

"Many of our liquor stores in our community have been good neighbors. That's fine," Green said. "We just don't want anymore."

Miles understands why.

"That's just one less stop that the poor people who don't have the money and are out here on drugs and alcohol ... one less place to purchase it," he said.

Family Dollar could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. However, in the past, the company said it was simply trying to provide its customers with more convenience.

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