This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Business & Tech

Government Shutdown Stings Hopkins Liquor License Holder

City officials won't release the name of the business.

For a few liquor stores, bars, and restaurants around Minnesota, the state's shutdown could not have come at a worse time. According to an industry trade group, as many as 60 such businesses, including one in Hopkins, never received critical paperwork from the state as it renewed their liquor licenses at the eleventh hour before the shutdown.

Only, no-one knows who the impacted retailer or restaurateur is.

City Clerk Terry Obermaier confirmed that one seller of alcohol in the city didn't receive confirmation from the state that it had vetted the city-issued liquor license.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

"As far as I’m concerned, we approved it on June 21, sent it to the state on the 22nd or the 24th, and I didn’t hear anything back from them saying they were denied," Obermaier said. "I'm going to assume it’s a glitch with the shutdown."

When asked for the business's name, Obermaier balked. When pressed for an explanation, she said "I'm just not comfortable."

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Calls to every liquor store in the city either went unanswered, as at , or managers professed no knowledge of the flap. Similarly, in calls to every alcohol-selling in Hopkins, managers said their restaurants were not the business in question, although no-one was available to answer questions at or

Anyone selling alcoholic beverages has to go through a slightly Byzantine licensing process, according to Frank Ball, Executive Director of the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association.

First, Ball said, a business presents its credentials, including proof of insurance, to its city clerk. If approved, the clerk shoots the paperwork to the state Department of Public Safety, which replies with a certificate known as a "buyer's card," which permits the business to buy liquor from state-regulated wholesalers. Businesses that sell alcohol aren't allowed to buy their supplies from retailers.

In several cases, Ball said, the state didn't confirm the city-issued licenses.

"We've got, maybe, 50 in that predicament," he said, adding that there were "maybe a handful" of additional retailers who hadn't received their buyers' cards.

"They can still stay open, but they can’t get any more new product in," Ball said. "The longer this lasts, the more they sell, the more they deplete their stock."

The state also maintains a "posted list" of distributors who are temporarily barred from buying from distributors. Ball said businesses typically are put on that for license violations or delinquent payments to distributors.

"If you’re on the posted list before shutdown but then you paid up, you can’t get off the posted list," he said.

While the number of impacted retailers was relatively small — nearly 60 out of 3,500 statewide — Ball said his group had petitioned Special Master Kathleen Blatz to add alcohol licensing to the list of essential services.

While the mystery Hopkins retailer's situation may look grim, there are hints that it might not be in such a tough position after all.

"We already have relationships with our distributors," said Lee Gilbertson, manager of . "I can see it being hard if you're trying to establish a new business, but our distributors don’t really ask for [our buyer's card] anymore because of these existing relationships."

Gilbertson explained that the distributors paid close attention to the state's tax laws and, in his experience, made sure he had a state tax identification number that let him buy alcohol from a wholesaler tax-free. Without that number, a wholesaler might be liable for the sales tax on an illegal alcohol sale.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?