BAN THE SALE OF BOOZE IN RETAILERS' PARKING LOTS
Alcohol isn’t like most products. If consumed illegally or excessively, it can have horrific consequences ranging from alcohol poisoning to drunken driving crashes. Consumed imprudently over time, or in conjunction with medications, it can have other equally disastrous consequences.
It’s not that alcohol is inherently bad, but the danger of making alcohol overly available has been proven by multiple studies.
That’s why as a society we’ve agreed that retailers shouldn’t sell alcohol to children or serve individuals who are already intoxicated. And it’s why Wisconsin municipalities are considering bans or serious restrictions on “click and collect” sales.
This latest retail trend allows you to order products online and have them delivered to your car in a store parking lot. In a busy world, this can be a huge stress reliever for many; and for those of us with mobility issues, a particular benefit. But alcohol isn’t like potatoes or dish soap.
Wisconsin law requires faceto-face alcohol sales that take place within the area described on the alcohol license. When retailers want to include alcohol in online purchases, they must request an expansion of the licensed area to include the designated parking spaces where the alcohol will be delivered. Once that hurdle is cleared, unless a community makes additional requirements, alcohol can be ordered, secured with a credit card and delivered to a car without the customer ever setting foot in the store.
While retailers insist that an ID is required before alcohol is placed in a car, an ID check conducted in a dark parking lot in sub-freezing weather is likely to be very brief. And even if an ID is checked, what about the car with one person over age 21 and four teenagers as passengers? Or what about the tipsy driver whose impairment would be easily identified inside the store but harder to spot in their car? The dangers of “click and collect” for alcohol are clear.
And once a community amends the licensed area to include parking lot delivery, the community can’t easily revoke that privilege. The lack of effective training or effective enforcement mechanisms to test retailer compliance increases the risk.
The “click and collect” trend is too new to have been studied for its specific impact; it is also so new that retailers don’t have set policies or experience with this type of sale or dealing with the problems it can create.
Wisconsin communities aren’t alone in this quandary; other states and communities are considering whether “click and collect” alcohol sales are appropriate and legal under current law.
Parking lot delivery of alcohol doesn’t solve a problem; alcohol is easy to buy now. But it could easily make a problem we already have worse: Wisconsin’s binge and excessive drinking rates are among the highest in the nation.
Research shows when alco-
hol becomes more available, rates of alcohol-related disorder and crime increase. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends communities restrict alcohol outlet density, as well as the days and hours it is sold.
There is a significant amount of evidence that increasing alcohol’s footprint in our communities makes highways less safe and increases the risk of underage drinking.
Many Wisconsin communities are thinking before approving this dramatic expansion of alcohol sales. Neenah has banned all “click and collect” alcohol sales. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin says face-to-face alcohol sales should require people to come into the store. Asking people to come into a store to purchase alcohol isn’t a hardship, it is common sense.
Municipal leaders have the ability and authority to prevent this type of alcohol sales, and for health and safety of the public, they should.
Julia Sherman is the coordinator of the Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project and Sarah Davis is a clinical associate professor of law at University of Wisconsin Law School.