Snap Alice Springs takeaway alcohol ban a boon for pubs, venues

While ‘mayhem’ failed to erupt outside Alice Springs bottle shops on Wednesday, there was an unintended consequence for other businesses. Read how the town fared.

Licensed venues in Alice Springs experienced a bump in trade on Monday and Tuesday while anticipated “mayhem” failed to eventuate at bottle shops where sales were steady.

Supermarkets had feared chaos would ensue when a new two-day ban on takeaway liquor sales ended on Wednesday afternoon as part of alcohol reforms announced by the Territory government last week.

But Lhere Artepe Enterprises chairman, Peter Holden, whose organisation manages three IGA bottle shops in Alice Springs, said trade was “normal or below normal” on Wednesday.

Mr Holden speculated that customers had stockpiled from drive-through outlets on Sunday, when all other liquor retailers are forced to remain closed.

“Our trade is not as busy as it was last week when the announcement was first made by the Chief Minister, for a few days following there were fairly big queues out the door and down the street,” he said.

“It seems that people are still buying their booze, just that their shopping habits may have changed, they’re not buying it in bits and pieces down at their local store, they’re buying it in one go.”

Shoppers were not forced to brave long queues to pick up a slab from their local bottle-O in Alice Springs on Wednesday. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Mr Holden said drinkers also appeared to have been opting to head to the pub on the days the bottle shops were closed.

“If they can’t get their alcoholic drinks at takeaway stores because they’re closed, they’re apparently going to the bars and pubs and getting it anyway and of course when they go there they’re paying more for it,” he said.

Iris Group Alice Springs chief operating officer, Craig Jervis, said while his company’s two drive-through outlets were “slightly busier than normal”, it was “nothing outrageous” and stockpiling was not reflected in their sales figures.

But while Mr Jervis confirmed trade at Iris’s licensed venues, including the Todd Tavern and Uncles Tavern, was up on Monday and Tuesday, he said there were no major incidents.

“If we’re driving problem drinkers on premises then that’s a problem but we obviously need to staff for that so it’s probably just us getting used to change in behaviour from people so we can have our RSA monitors and things like that in the right places,” he said.

“On premises drinking is under supervision, you’re under cameras and you’re under staff monitoring, there’s security and other people around and it’s regulated, so there’s always an advantage of people drinking on premises.

“We were busy on Monday and Tuesday and we sort of anticipated we would be, so we can prepare for it, as long as you know what’s occurring.”

Originally published as Snap Alice Springs takeaway alcohol ban a boon for pubs, venues