Glencoe approves liquor license for Walgreens

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The Hubbard Woods Plaza Walgreens has won the right to sell hard liquor in addition to beerand, above, wine. |Irv Leavitt ~ Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 24, 2012 8:39AM

Glencoe residents and passers-through can soon buy bottled liquor at three different places within steps of each other — and nowhere else in town.

Village Trustees Feb. 16 approved 5-0 the request of the Hubbard Woods Plaza Walgreens, 63 Green Bay Road, for a hard liquor — A1 — license. That store is a few steps from the Binny’s Express, 71 Green Bay. The third license is at the 7-Eleven at 107 Green Bay Road.

The trustees considered it a no-brainer because the store already had an A1 license, which it voluntarily gave up years ago when Walgreens got out of the liquor business to expand less problematical but equally profitable lines like greeting cards and soft drinks.

Walgreens started a return to the alcohol business a few years ago, and the Hubbard Woods store requested and received a beer/wine A2 package license in 2009. There have never been any complaints against Walgreens about alcohol sales, village officials say.

Village Trustee Larry Levin, who served on two Glencoe economic development committees in recent years, said the new Walgreens license could be something shoppers want.

He said residents lament the loss of variety stores, and crave convenience. “People said they wanted one-stop shopping,” he said.

Walgreens hasn’t done much with the A2 license, however.

Monday, the store boasted a five-foot long case of cold beer, and a wire basket containing two varieties of $4.99 wine suspended over a theater candy display.