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Regulations Await For Those Ready to Sell Alcohol in Benton County

By: Tyler Thomason

Updated: January 3, 2013

If you've driven down Southeast Walton in Bentonville lately, you might have noticed a new sign.

A sign of the times really. As alcohol retailer "Macadoodles" seems to be soaking up opportunity that awaits in a dry-turned-wet county.

"Benton county is going to get 55, or eligible to get 55 liquor stores," says Rick Crisman, a deputy director for the state's Alcohol Beverage Control department.

You may recognize the Missouri-based "Macadoodles" name from it's liquor store in Springdale, but folks who think liquor sales will start flowing from the Bentonville location -- think again.

"They (Macadoodles) currently have a liquor permit in this state so therefore, they cannot have a vested interest in another," Crisman says.

It's an ABC regulation that Crisman says not a lot of people know about.

"If you already have an off-premise liquor permit, you cannot have a vested interest in another one, anywhere in the state," Crisman adds. "Each individual store has its own permit. One permit, one location."

The only exceptions are past permits issued before this 1972 regulation went into effect.

However, business owners looking to sell just beer and wine don't have a store limit.

"There could be 10, there could be 100," Crisman says. "Liquor stores are different than convenient stores or grocery stores."

And those are just a few of the guidelines that merchants and customers have to comply with, before it's truly bottoms up in Benton County.

"They're just thinking that the new year came and now alcohol is going to be available everywhere," Crisman adds. "There's a lot of rules and regulations you have to follow."

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