SE North Carolina News

Some New Hanover County businesses with a liquor-by-the-drink license can return a portion of their unopened alcohol to help offset financial losses created from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The New Hanover County ABC Board decided April 7 on a measure to try to help out local businesses that are unable to sell alcohol ordered shortly before the health crisis started, according to reporting by WECT.

Each LBD licensee can return up to 15% of the product they purchased between Feb. 1 and April 2, regardless of whether any businesses continued to order alcohol for the final weeks of that period when restrictions would have already been in place, WECT reported.

However, no taxes charged on alcohol products ordered during that period will be refunded, only the value of the returned products.

Bill Blair, a board member who formerly served as the mayor of Wrightsville Beach, said the board seemed in agreement that helping the businesses out with this kind of offer was the right move.

This is an unusual move for the board, since returned alcohol may not have been stored in optimal conditions, and there is no way to guarantee the quality is the same as it was when it went out, Blair told WECT.  

There are several requirements on LBD licensees who choose to take advantage of the opportunity. For one, the offer does not apply to special-order items, and the returned product must be unopened with stamps in place.

All returned bottles must be clean. Each business also cannot return more than 30 different products in a single day, though duplicate bottles of a single product are all counted as one product.

Businesses returning a product to the ABC will have to reach out two days ahead of the intended drop-off date and seek approval from ABC for the full list of items to be returned.