Local Mini-Mart Charged with Serving Alcohol to Minor

A local establishment recently charged with serving alcohol to a minor is notorious for selling beer and alcoholic “energy” drinks to teenagers, including many from Long Beach, according to Judi Vining, coordinator of the Long Beach Medical Center’s Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking.

T Maxx Inc., at 4305 Austin Boulevard in Island Park, which previously operated as Liberty Mart, was slapped with a violation for serving alcohol to a person or persons under age 21 in October, and the New York State Liquor Authority may revoke the business’s liquor license next month after the business failed to enter a plea on Jan. 4, the Long Beach Herald reports.

Said Vining about the mini-mart’s reputation for serving alcohol and drinks with alcohol to youth:  

“[Liberty Mart] has been one of the establishments that kids have cited as a source. The kids that I see, who come to our alcohol awareness program, are often asked, ‘Where do you get your alcohol?’ and sometimes they’re very forthcoming.”

“The kids that I see, who come to our alcohol awareness program, are often asked, ‘Where do you get your alcohol?’ and sometimes they’re very forthcoming. Kids see it — there’s advertising in the media, and I don’t know too many 40-year-old men who want to drink Four Loko — it’s designed and marketed to youth.”

At Long Beach City Hall on Tuesday, Vining told the City Council and City Manager Jack Schnirman that the Coalition secured a $873,000 grant last year through the state’s Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services to address issues such as underage drinking in Long Beach.

Vining invited council members to Coalition’s monthly meetings, and President Fran Adelson welcomed the invitation and indicated that she would attend.

Vining noted that when the Coalition was established in 2000, 47 percent of ninth graders in Long Beach reported drinking within the previous 30 days, and that the latest stats from 2008 showed that this figure was down to 30 percent, but still cause for concern.  

“That rate of 30 percent was higher than the state rate and higher than that county rate,” Vining said. “So, we have work to do.”