Plaza IGA: No liquor license application

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p2258-Alice-Plaza-extBy ERWIN CHLANDA
 
There is no application before Licensing NT for a liquor licence associated with a new supermarket in the Alice Plaza, says Sean Parnell, Director-General of Licensing.
 
If such an application were received, there would be the usual rounds of consultation with the community, the town council and police.
 
All the things laid out in the Liquor Act would be taken into account, among them, potential harm in the community and the public interest – “That’s a big thing,” says Mr Parnell.
 
Meanwhile Sally McMartin, manager of Lhere Artepe Enterprises and Lhere Artepe Nominees, says the local native title organisation is not the prospective owner of an IGA store in the Plaza.
 
Lhere Artepe runs three IGAs, in Fynn Drive, Hearne Place and Lindsay Avenue.
 
PHOTO: The centre’s bland facade may get a make-over.
 
 

7 COMMENTS

  1. Surprise, surprise! You CAN have a supermarket that doesn’t sell alcohol.
    You’d actually be able to go food shopping with the kids and not have to explain; the presence of a Police Officer outside the door, the yelling and screaming from groups of people, the violence in and outside of the supermarket, the collapsed drunk on the footpath, etc.
    Wouldn’t shopping for food without the “humbug” of the grog culture be attractive to every family, regardless of colour or race?
    While removing alcohol from supermarkets to specialist liquor stores (at least 1km away from a food outlet) won’t solve the alcohol problems of the NT, it would certainly make the experience of the essential life activity of feeding the family much more pleasant.
    I’ll be supporting an IGA without liquor!

  2. It is very unlikely that a supermarket could compete with Coles and Woolies if it didn’t have a liquor licence Maggie (Posted July 24, 2015 at 9:46 am).
    Woolies in particular makes so much from its huge number of liquor outlets that it can afford to cross subsidise certain products which draw many customers into its stores.
    A few years back the other IGAs said that they would not be able to stay open if they couldn’t sell some alcohol products. At least they had the good grace to voluntarily knock the cheap fortified and cask wines off their shelves, and put a floor price (amounting to one dollar per standard drink) on the cheapest bottled wine.
    The fact that no licence application has been lodged yet on behalf of the mooted IGA in the Plaza centre should not be taken to mean that a lodgement is not being contemplated, if indeed somebody is seriously planning to open a new supermarket there.
    If you really want to reduce the negative impacts of the grog culture, Maggie, you will have to join in the efforts to turn down the grog tap in the NT, by reducing supply of, and demand for, the cheapest alcohol products.
    This means introducing a floor price to eliminate retail sales of the cheapest wines, which undercut the price of beer; an ID check on all those purchasing takeaway alcohol, to temporarily prevent sales to people who have drunk alcohol to excess and committed offences while drunk; replacing sponsorship of teams and events by alcohol producers and retailers; the cessation of alcohol advertising during sports broadcasts; and long term measures to educate people better about the detrimental effects of excess consumption, and better drinking styles.

  3. @ Bob Duran: As long as my bum points to the ground I will not shop at an IGA on principle, regardless of they have a Liquorland or not. We do have other choices.

  4. @ Fred the Philistine:
    Yes we do have choices and the right to live with our principles. Mine is to try, as much as possible, to support the Australian farmers and the local industries.
    As major supermarket chains give more shelf space to their own brand items the “name brand” products are being squeezed off the shelves with only the top selling items remaining.
    For customers this means less variety, less choice and the disappearance of familiar brands from the aisles.
    For supermarkets it creates a shift in bargaining power further down the supply chain; Australian farmers and wholesalers have little choice but to sell through the supermarkets’ own brands and are forced to compete with cheaper and often heavily subsidised foreign imports.
    The supermarket giants have been blamed for Australia having the fastest growing grocery prices in the developed world.
    ABC’s Hungry Beast program (March 10, 2010); The Beast File: Woolies and Coles.
    If alcohol is a health problem, so is tobacco, and Woolworths is the largest seller of tobacco and alcohol and Australia’s largest owner of poker machines (more than 10,000).

  5. @ Evelyne: It was 5 or 6 years ago that IGA were importing apples from China, of which 35 containers were rejected because of high concentration of insecticide.

  6. Cases of Hepatitis A have been linked to the consumption of 1 kg packets of Nanna’s Frozen Mixed Berries.
    The berries came from China and Chile, were packaged in China and were imported by Patties Foods, which is based in Bairnsdale, east Victoria.
    The products were distributed to consumers mainly by Woolworths, Coles and IGA supermarkets.
    The rate of imported food products is increasing at a rapid pace, as the only way for the companies to provide their ridiculously low prices is to buy food produced in countries by cheap labour.
    The question is: Australian made – are people really willing to pay more?

  7. Informative commentary – I appreciate the details. Does someone know if my assistant would be able to find a sample a form form to complete?

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