No date was set, but members of Concord Township Council Wednesday night granted a conditional use hearing for Wegmans to change its alcohol sales hours.
The grocery store was granted conditional use approval in 2015 to sell beer and wine from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. But now Wegmans wants those hours to change to 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to midnight on Sundays, with wine-to-go sales stopping at 11 p.m. daily.
That initial request to change hours came from attorney Ellen Freeman during the April 4 meeting. Council President Dominic Pileggi told Freeman in April that the township would get back to her once the council decides whether to hold a new hearing.
Solicitor Hugh Donaghue told council members that they could turn down the request for a new hearing or open a hearing should they want to entertain the prospect of changing those hours and amending the original decision made eight years ago.
However, the topic led to a round-about discussion concerning other grocery stores and Wawas changing their beer and wine sales hours. Council Co-Vice President John Gillespie said Acme and Whole Foods end their wine and beer sales at 10 p.m. and others go to 11 p.m. Wawa, too, ends its beer and wine sales at 11.
“The question in my mind is do we want all these businesses to have the same times [for alcohol sales], or do we want to be flexible,” he said, adding that Acme could conceivably want to change its hours when it’s learned that Wegmans had its hours change.
Pileggi said Gillespie’s point was a good one in that the proposed change would be inconsistent with what the township has allowed in the past.
The conversation then led to questions about how the township should handle the possibility of those other businesses changing their hours. Should there be one hearing for all the businesses selling beer and wine or should they be treated individually with separate hearings? Should there be consistency among all of those stores?
Donaghue said the other businesses based their original requests on specific facts and they can request changes to fit new facts and conditions.
Pileggi agreed. “I think we might be better solving this problem with someone from Wegmans here and perhaps the easiest way to do that is just to have a hearing.”
Other members agreed and decided to have the hearing for Wegmans and let the others make their own separate requests later.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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