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DAYTON — CVS and parent company Caremark will stop selling single-serving alcoholic beverages in their downtown store in response to community requests.
Despite pleas from Dayton police and the Downtown Dayton Partnership among others, company officials initially declined to stop sales of individual 40-ounce bottles and 20-ounce cans of alcohol at the Courthouse Square store, 32 N. Ludlow St., citing popularity with customers.
A spokesman for the company, in an email to the Dayton Daily News, said they began removing the products Wednesday.
Police Maj. Larry Faulkner said the removal of cheap, portable alcohol from the downtown store will help curb public drunkenness and other illegal activity in the Courthouse Square area. Police will continue with current patrols, he said.
CVS sells alcohol in 60 percent of its 7,100 stores, but has pulled single-serving alcohol items out of other urban stores, including in downtown Columbus.
“CVS/Caremark is to be commended for quickly acting on this situation and helping to resolve it by understanding that being a good neighbor means contributing to the positive environment of downtown Dayton,” said state Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, who also contacted CVS officials with complaints about disorderly conduct, vagrancy and littering in the square.
Luckie hopes the nearby Stop-N-Save Foods on Third Street will also discontinue single-serving alcohol sales.
In Tuesday’s Dayton Daily News, Faulkner indicated that Stop-N-Save management would be willing to stop selling single-serving alcoholic beverages if CVS did so.
On Wednesday, the manager of the family-owned Stop-N-Save, Simon Abboud, said he hadn’t made any promises to stop selling the products.
“It’s never been about beer sales for us,” he said.
Abboud said the problems of loitering, aggressive panhandling and drug dealing outside his store are not because of the sale of cheap alcohol. He said he has been in contact with city officials and police in the past, requesting changes to the city’s panhandling license rules as well as construction of a barrier to stop vagrants from hanging out inside the entrance way to the Arcade complex next door.
A panhandling license allows people to “politely ask for money” during certain hours of the day, Faulkner said. It does not specify where a person can panhandle.
At Wednesday’s Dayton City Commission meeting, Abboud said the license makes some individuals feel entitled to harass his customers as they enter and exit the store. He said the Arcade’s alcove is a haven for drug dealers and illegal vendors in addition to a spot where people urinate in public.
Commissioners expressed their desire to meet with Abboud to discuss both issues, but Commissioner Nan Whaley stressed that the issue of single beer sales would be a big part of that discussion.
Asked if he would stop selling the product at the request of police, Abboud said, “I’m willing to discuss it.” He said if they city proves that the alcohol sales are truly the problem, then he will gladly stop selling single-serving alcohol.
“If you take away the single cans of beer though, they are just going to buy a six pack,” he said.
Luckie acknowledged that alcohol consumption is just a part of problem.
“We know this is just a start to clean up downtown Dayton,” he said. “I think this was good community work. People came together and got it done.”
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