By Staff 5-24,2016
Sam’s Club in Cheyenne will soon be able to sell liquor at its store. The Cheyenne City Council voted 7-3 last night to approve the transfer of the liquor license from Cloud Nine Liquorland to Sam’s Club. Sam’s Club is hoping to buy the liquor license from Cloud Nine Liquorland owner Tim Knigham, and build an area in their store to sell alcohol. Councilman Dicky Shanor voted in favor of approving the license. He says he says the city shouldn’t have stood in the way of an individual trying to sell his liquor license.
“I can’t tell the owner of Cloud Nine, you’ve got a $200,000 dollar property interest, you want to retire, and I know it’s going to Sam’s a responsible business in our community, I just can’t tell him no, sorry I don’t think you should be able to do this.”
Sam’s Club had previously tried to obtain a liquor license through the city, and was always denied. Shanor says by approving the license to Sam’s Club there is no legal obligation to approve another liquor license for a gas station or grocery store just because the council approved the liquor license for Sam’s Club.
“We’re down to three liquor licenses after this. What’s so valuable about these liquor licenses is the catering ability. We have to be very careful about just selling those other three and letting them go out to gas stations and grocery stores and then not being able to offer that bone to a nice restaurant or some other business that wants to come in and a better economic impact. So, this doesn’t mean that they are all going to go to grocery stores and gas stations.”
Sam’s Club must still go through the steps of getting the license, and construction of the liquor area in the store, and could be selling liquor later this summer.
