Aldi escapes 14-day beer sales suspension after blame placed on store manager

In this June 5, 2017, photo, a woman and child walk from Aldi food market, in Salem, N.H. Low-cost grocery chain Aldi says it plans to add more stores in the U.S. over the next five years, meaning more competition for traditional grocers, Walmart and organics-focused chains like Whole Foods. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
In this June 5, 2017, photo, a woman and child walk from Aldi food market, in Salem, N.H. Low-cost grocery chain Aldi says it plans to add more stores in the U.S. over the next five years, meaning more competition for traditional grocers, Walmart and organics-focused chains like Whole Foods. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
photo Elizabeth Ann Boettcher, the former store manager at the Aldi supermarket at 5706 Lee Hwy. in Brainerd, was cited for selling wine to a minor during a May 23 Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Control sting.

The Aldi supermarket at 5706 Lee Highway in Brainerd escaped a 14-day suspension of its beer and wine sales Thursday once the Chattanooga Beer Board learned store manager Elizabeth Boettcher kept her superiors in the dark about a series of mishaps and was fired by the company.

First, while working a cash register on May 23, Boettcher sold a bottle of wine to an underage decoy.

Next, she failed to appear for a June 15 beer board meeting - which beer board members felt was a sign of disrespect worthy of giving Aldi an extra-stiff penalty, a 14-day suspension.

And then, as the two-week suspension's June 22 start date loomed closer, Boettcher didn't tell corporate headquarters anything until two days before it was due to take effect.

"The manager sort of panicked and all of a sudden decided to report that," said Tayo Atanda, a Nashville attorney for Aldi who traveled to Chattanooga for Thursday's beer board meeting. "We did not know about the suspension until two days before it."

"On behalf of Aldi, we're incredibly sorry," he told the beer board. "We terminated the manager."

Atanda outlined steps the store has taken to prevent future sales to minors, including instructing cashiers to look for the date at which a Tennessean becomes 21, which is in a red box on a young driver's ID.

"All the clerks really have to do is check the date that the person turns 21; there's no math involved," he said.

The suspension never took effect at the Aldi store, because Atanda filed an appeal in Hamilton County Chancery Court.

The beer board voted 6-0 Thursday to authorize Assistant City Attorney Keith Reisman to settle with Aldi and give the discount chain the typical penalty for a first-time offense: the option of a three-day suspension or a $1,500 fine.

'Why aren't employees fined?'

Aldi wasn't the only example of an employee at Thursday's beer board meeting letting their employer down.

The Save-A-Ton Citgo gas station at 5701 Highway 153 got a seven-day suspension to begin July 13 - and no option for a monetary fine - after an employee there sold beer to an underage female decoy on May 30.

The gas station's owner wondered why the business, and not the employee, was getting punished.

"I don't have any explanation why he did what he did," Saurabh V. Patel told the beer board. "Why aren't employees fined or arrested? We cannot be there all the time. We do enforce ID checks. [Employees] have ways of overriding everything."

Employees who sell alcohol to minors are cited criminally when stings are done by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. For example, Boettcher, the Aldi store manager in Brainerd, was charged with illegally selling alcohol to a minor.

However, employees aren't routinely cited in Chattanooga Beer Board stings, such as the one at Save-A-Ton. But that's something that the beer board is working to change.

"We're trying to get there," beer board member Ron Smith said.

Save-A-Ton got a seven-day suspension instead of the standard three days with an optional fine after beer board member Trevor Atchley said the store's owner had no alcohol training for employees, was "obstructing justice" by calling employees to warn them of the sting in the area, and because "the owner thinks it's the city's responsibility to impose fines on employees."

Other businesses that got the option of a three-day suspension or a $1,500 fine from the beer board Thursday were the LongHorn Steakhouse at 5771 Brainerd Road for sale to a decoy on May 25 and the Mr. Zip Shell gas station and convenience store at 1905 Gunbarrel Road for a sale during a May 30 sting.

The board also eased off a stiff, 14-day suspension it gave on June 15 to Amigo's Mexican Restaurant at 5794 Brainerd Road because no one from the restaurant appeared before the board then.

Reynaldo Garcia, a manager and partner who's been with the restaurant for 20 years, explained that he missed the June 15 meeting because he thought he'd get a letter telling him when to come. He voluntarily suspended all alcohol sales for one day on June 16 when he heard about the beer board's action.

The beer board voted 4-to-2 to authorize Reisman to settle with Amigo's lawyer, Lloyd Levitt, for a two-day suspension or a $1,000 fine.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.

Upcoming Events