De Pere OKs curb-side beer pickup for Walmart customers who order 4 hours ahead

Green Bay Press Gazette

DE PERE - Add intoxicating beverages to the items you can have delivered to your car in parts of Wisconsin these days — but some local health professionals say that's not a positive development.

De Pere on Tuesday became the latest in a slowly growing number of Wisconsin cities and villages to open the door for adults who want to buy beer without leaving their cars.

A City Council vote allowed curbside pick-up of beer ordered in advance, and granted the Lawrence Drive Walmart a license change allowing it sell beer to drive-up customers who've ordered at least four hours in advance. The changes go into effect Monday or Tuesday, once the ordinance is published in the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

A group of local health professionals promoting responsible alcohol consumption says adding online ordering and curbside pickup when people already can buy alcohol in bars as well as grocery, convenience and liquor stores. Tom Doughman, who is working with the County Health Improvement Program in an effort to decrease binge-drinking, said adding another way to buy alcohol can create additional problems.

"Access to alcohol in Brown County is already saturated, in that there are more bars than grocery stores," said Doughman, the assistant director of counseling and psychological services at Saint Norbert College and co-chairman of the Brown County Alcohol and Drug Task Force.

"County residents have such ease of access to purchase and consume alcohol now," he said, that adding the ability for a person to use a 'drive-through liquor store' is not helping the culture of responsible consumption in our community."

Ashwaubenon, Appleton, Grand Chute, Fond du Lac, Madison and other communities allow some form of curbside alcohol pickup, said Julia Sherman, who heads the Alcohol Policy Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

De Pere officials say they're taking pains to ensure that curbside pickup doesn't cause problems in the city.

For one, the ordering process is more complicated than buying beer at a store the old-fashioned way. Police Chief Derek Beiderwieden said that's to ensure that the product is not sold to someone underage, intoxicated or both.

"We want it so kids running around town can't just say, 'let's go get some beer' and get it right away," he said.

For starters, orders can't be picked up sooner than four hours after the order was placed. And orders placed after 2 p.m. won't be available until the next business day.

Also, City Council plans to review the ordinance in six months, Alderman Dan Carpenter said.

Different municipalities have approached the curbside-alcohol issue differently:

Ashwaubenon trustees, for example, voted in July to allow the Pick 'n Save grocery on Lombardi Access Road to sell beer and liquor for pickup in designated parking spots.

Madison's city council approved curbside pick early this year, but Mayor Paul Soglin vetoed the measure. The city eventually adopted an ordinance in March allowing curbside sales when council overrode the veto on a second try, the city's website shows.

Green Bay considered an ordinance similar to De Pere's, but the City Council shot it down on a 9-3 vote in July.

"No one came to support the proposal, and there are enough ways for people to get alcohol already," Alderman William Galvin said.

Sherman said different concerns about curbside programs have arisen as different municipalities considered allowing them.

"In Madison, two stores that wanted to do this were near an entrance to an interstate highway," she said. "There was concern a buyer could be on the interstate in minutes."

Other communities, she said, might have had concerns that it would be difficult for a store employee to check a buyer's ID in a parking lot, especially on a winter evening when the light is poor, and heavy clothing might make it hard to see a buyer's face.

Neenah's city council banned curbside beer sales. Council voted 5-4 in December to impose the ban after Walmart proposed a set-up similar to De Pere's.

South of Madison, the Stoughton City Council voted 8-1 last October to prohibit curbside alcohol pickup. That also came as a response to a Walmart request.

De Pere ordinance

De Pere's ordinance governing curbside beer sales is modeled after one in effect in Madison, said Judy Schmidt-Lehman, De Pere's city attorney. Highlights:

Pick-ups must happen between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Orders must be placed by 2 p.m. for same-day pickup.
At least four hours must elapse between order and pickup.
The store must keep an image of the vehicle on file at least 30 days.
The pickup area must be within 100 feet of the store's front door, and clearly marked.
If the person driving the vehicle isn't the person who placed the order, a store employee must verify, via photo ID, that the driver is 21 or older.
Clerks handling sales are subject to the same regulations as clerks handling in-store sales, and the store can't sell to a person who appears intoxicated.