Hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores across Minnesota are running out of beer and alcohol and others may soon run out of cigarettes — a subtle and largely unforeseen consequence of a state government shutdown.
In the days leading up to the shutdown, thousands of outlets scrambled to renew their state-issued liquor purchasing cards. Many of them did not make it.
Now, with no end in sight to the shutdown, they face a summer of fast-dwindling alcohol supplies and a bottom line that looks increasingly bleak.
“It’s going to cripple our industry,” said Frank Ball, executive director of the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association, which represents thousands of liquor retailers in the state.
The Ugly Mug, a popular bar near Target Field, doesn’t have enough beer to get through the baseball season.
“Our inventories are diminishing rapidly over the next month,” owner Erik Forsberg said. He was among a cluster of bar and restaurant owners who appealed Tuesday to a court-appointed special master to be allowed to continue buying alcohol during the shutdown.
Come Labor Day, cigarette smokers will be in the same bind. The state has stopped issuing the tax stamps that distributors must glue to the bottom of every pack sold at retail.
Tom Briant, executive director of the Minnesota Wholesale Marketers Association, said that “in September … we would expect to see a shortage of cigarettes begin.”
Of the roughly 10,000 establishments that sell liquor in Minnesota, most that needed to renew their buyer purchasing cards managed to do so before the July 1 shutdown. About 300 were caught with permits that expired June 30 — and no way to renew them. That number will grow as more cards expire at random intervals, according to state officials.
“It’s definitely going to get worse,” said Jim Arlt, director of alcohol and gambling enforcement for the Department of Public Safety. “There will be more and more businesses affected.” The alcohol regulation side of Arlt’s office was laid off during the shutdown.
The state stands to lose millions of dollars in taxes that come through alcohol and cigarette sales, further diminishing already anemic revenues.
Meanwhile, budget negotiations on Tuesday remained at a standstill.
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