Residents’ displeasure over the closing of the Richmond Beach liquor store is a sentiment that hasn’t exactly been bottled up.

Despite an effort by residents to keep the neighborhood liquor store in business, the store closed on Saturday, Feb. 11. The store was open at the location since 1967.

A petition with 3,000 signatures was sent to the state Liquor Control Board and the governor’s office, to no avail.

“Three thousand people are adamant about the fact that they will not cross Aurora to access the liquor store at the Gateway Plaza,” said resident Myron Phillips, who advocated to keep the store open. “That will be a loss.”

Phillips helped gather the signatures, as well as obtained letters of support from local officials and organizations. Although LCB officials contend the Richmond Beach store closed because it was the fourth least productive store in the state, Phillips says the reason is likely because of the new store at the redeveloped Gateway Plaza, at 185th Street and Aurora Avenue N., which closed in 2003 and reopened in November 2005.

“The Washington State Liquor Board decided to close the Richmond Beach liquor store in order to add its business to the Gateway store to ease financial burdens there,” Phillips stated in a letter to the LCB. “Hence, they are making the Richmond Beach store their sacrificial lamb.”

Bob Burdick, communications director with the state LCB, said the Richmond Beach store closed because it was not earning enough revenue to justify being kept open. As there is a limited number of liquor stores allowed in the state, per approval by the legislature, he said the Richmond Beach store will essentially be relocated to Lacey, Wash.

The Richmond Beach store is not losing money, Burdick said, but is not earning up to its revenue potential. Liquor stores are expected to have annual retail sales of at least $1.8 million, he said and the Richmond Beach store was doing less than $900,000, which is considered under performing. The store at the Gateway Plaza, which recently reopened, will serve the residents of Richmond Beach, he said.

“The new store is accessible to more people,” Burdick said, “even though some people in Richmond Beach feel it is inconvenient.”

There are three other liquor stores within a three-mile radius of the Richmond Beach store, he said. Factors used to locate stores include accessibility to arterial streets, visibility, parking, potential revenue and evaluating how the other 161 stores in the state are performing.

“It was significantly under in terms of normal performance,” Burdick said about the Richmond Beach store. “I think we will be able to get that in the new store.”

Linda Fryant, employee relations specialist with Washington Public Employees Association, said she is still trying to get a “straight answer” from the LCB regarding why the store closed.

Closing the store does not follow the mission statement of the LCB, she said, which lists one vision as serving the public. Residents are upset, Fryant said, because the store is a destination store and is a short walk from many homes.

“I can’t see how they are doing anything to serve the needs of the public when they have over 3,000 signatures,” Fryant said about the petition.

The manager of the Richmond Beach store will be relocated to a store in Stanwood, Wash., Fryant said, although she was unsure of what would become of three other store employees, who are members of a different union.

The more expensive rent at the Gateway Plaza liquor store may have impacted the decision to close the Richmond Beach store, Fryant said. Although the closing of the store was set for the end of February, she said the date was moved up at the last minute.

Phillips expects many residents who previously frequented the Richmond Beach store to instead visit the Edmonds liquor store, located at 22824 100th Ave. W.

“People from the Highlands, Innis Arden and Richmond Highlands, Woodway and parts of Edmonds will go to the Edmonds liquor store,” Phillips said.

Whether residents frequent a liquor store in Edmonds rather than Shoreline will not affect the revenue the city receives from the LCB, said Shoreline city finance director Debbie Tarry. The state collects taxes from the sale of liquor, then returns 40 percent of the profits to cities and counties according to a formula based on population, she said. The city receives about $580,000 per year from the sale of liquor statewide.

“It really doesn’t matter if we have no stores in the city or if we have 15 stores in the city,” Tarry said. “The revenue is taken as a whole at the state level.”