Spring Break
Villa closed for liquor law violations
Katherine Martinez
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: News
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The permit for the liquor store was suspended in a negotiated settlement with the department. The suspension is a result of an incident that occurred on April 17, 2008, when liquor control and state police conducted a compliance check. At the time, a minor was sent into the store and successfully purchased alcohol, Suchy said. In addition to closing for a week, Villa also received a $7,000 fine.
Since the closing, Holiday Spirits, one of Villa's biggest competitors, has doubled the business it would normally see, according to Holiday employee Michael Mizla. Although Mizla is happy about the increase in sales, he enjoys the competition with Villa.
"The best thing in the world is competition. It makes you better," Mizla said.
Holiday Spirits was also caught selling alcohol to minors last year when a disgruntled employee knowingly sold to an underage person. According to Connecticut Liquor Laws, employees caught selling liquor to a minor can face up to one year in prison and/or a fine of $1,000. Mizla said that the employee was fired immediately.
The incident was the first time in 38 years that Holiday was charged with selling to minors. Since then, the only thing Holiday has changed is its quality of employees.
"Selling to minors is a very serious offense," Mizla said, who stresses the importance of checking and scanning identification. Scanners notify employees if an ID is expired, in which case it cannot be accepted. According to Mizla, Holiday sees about five expired IDs a week, which is more than the amount of fake IDs that are shown.
"We pride ourselves in what we do. What happened last year is still a big embarrassment." Mizla said.
Adam Brodin, owner of Villa Spirit Shoppe, declined to comment.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Johnny
posted 3/26/09 @ 12:30 PM EST
1) should have closed it during spring weekend..haha
2) every liquor store sells to underage people from time to time. Its a fact. It's almost impossible to stop every single incident. (Continued…)
B
posted 3/26/09 @ 3:43 PM EST
Wow, way to bash the kid who sold the booze at holiday without knowing the whole story. He was hardly disgruntled, he was trapped by a fake ID and management that did not care if they used the machine to check IDs if it was busy in the store. (Continued…)
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