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Four employees at an East Broadway liquor store just not enough to deal with hordes of thirsty St. Patrick's parade goers, board says
By adamg on Thu, 07/20/2023 - 11:55am
The Boston Licensing Board today formally dinged Dorgan's, 662‑664 East Broadway, for getting caught selling hard liquor to an underage guy with a fake ID and for letting customers walk back onto the street with open containers of alcohol during this year's St. Patrick's parade.
Board members say the store should have had more people on duty to deal with a parade crush of business.
At a hearing Tuesday, owner Sing Ming Chan's attorney, James Rudser, said that in anticipation of the extra business, Chan had doubled the number of people on duty on March 19 - from two to four. He and his uncle were at the door, checking IDs, while two other workers staffed the counter.
But that wasn't enough, the board said, after hearing from a licensing detective that not only did he stop a man a couple months shy of his 21st birthday walking out with liquor - and a fake Connecticut driver's license - other patrons "were leaving with open containers of alcohol," which is also illegal in Boston.
Rudser acknowledged the police report was correct, but said Dorgan's had had no previous problems and simply got overwhelmed.
Chan "had a plan in place, it just didn't work," he said.
Not acceptable, board Chairwoman Kathleen Joyce said, pointing to the store's lack of a modern ID scanner. "He's risking his entire license by not having something like that, especially on parade day," she said.
"Four people doesn't seem adequate on parade day," board member Liam Curran agreed.
Because of Dorgan's previously clean record, the board voted only to send a warning letter this time.
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Comments
This would never have
This would never have happened …
… in old Southie.
It's the store owners fault
It's the store owners fault people opened up their drinks after they paid for them? What are they supposed to do, spank them?
Put someone on the door/floor?
And not let 'em do that in the store. What they do outside is their business.
"...in Old Southie."
You're probably right. That's because in the days of olde, alcohol sales were not allowed in Massachusetts on a Sunday.
That means all the revelers who came to the neighborhood on that day had no real opportunity to buy more booze after their initial supply ran out. This would lead the sensible ones to head back to the commuter rail and go back to Rockland or Methuen or wherever. As for the ones lacking the sense to be sensible, there were other ways of enhancing their experience.
Have a great day everyone!
True
for all you Johnny Come Lately Know it Alls, the parade was always held on St Patrick’s Day whether it was a weekday or weekend. Drunkenness forced the parade to the Sunday closest to March 17th because bars and packies were closed. The Legislature decided it was ok to sell alcohol on Sundays so this is where we are today.
Sure it would have
We had no problems in the 80s getting deliveries as kids. Decent tip, an empty hallway and all the schnapps and whatever else you could ask for
What I was saying was ….
….. that in old Southie the packie would never have been dinged to begin with!
What are they supposed to do
What are they supposed to do differently if customers try and leave with open products?
They could care less
Packies and bars make more money on that one day that no amount of fines can deter the opportunity to make a killing on alcohol.
Dorgan's
They don't need it. These are all busy places every day, parte day is a huge headache for bars and package stores. Not worth it.
So they do care? Even a
So they do care? Even a little?
No.
Don’t be literal.
There are a couple of constructs in English like this
“I couldn’t care less” and “I could care less” mean the same thing, since the latter is used only sarcastically.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a thrilling discourse on “flammable.”
Stay gruntled, my fans, and have a great night.
The parade
would have been moved out of South Boston years ago, but the package stores and barrooms on Broadway put a squash to that idea because of the revenue loss for that one day.
Last years parade fundraiser showed the same businesses have not given one dime to the parade organizers.
Time to start the dialog again.
Open container
Why would a customer open the container while in the store, instead of waiting until they were out in the street?
Alcoholic
That's why.
It is a testament to how much the ingestion of alcohol is enabled, tolerated, even celebrated in our society that we just look past all kinds of unhealthy drinking behaviors and say nothing. Most people don't even recognize a lot of the problem behaviors until they escalate and thent they shrug and say "Who knew?"
I mostly agree
I agree that we normalize alcohol abuse to a degree that would shock a visitor from another universe.
That doesn’t mean that I think the law should treat opening a beer while still in the store any differently than opening a Dr Pepper while still in the store. From a public health perspective, waiting until you are outside is irrelevant.