Businesses to shut down at month's end

Two Cheney businesses have announced plans to close down at the end of August.

Communications provider CenturyLink will be closing the customer service portion of its Cheney location while Cheney Liquor, which has been in business in the Safeway store plaza location since 2003, will shut its doors for good.

CenturyLink's business marketing and public relations manager for Spokane and Salt Lake City, Kerry Zimmer, said while the customer service office is closing in Cheney the engineering portion, including management and equipment technicians, would remain. The reason to close customer service was made at the corporate level, she added, noting that other stores - including two more in Washington - would be closing while new stores would be opening in new markets as the company evaluates its cost structures and business practices.

"The decision was made to close this (Cheney) one," Zimmer said. "Obviously, the local sentiment would be to keep it open to serve the (Eastern Washington University) students, to serve the community."

The last day Cheney customers will be able to pay their bills, upgrade service or get questions answered at the First Street location is Aug. 28. After that, Zimmer said customers have plenty of options for these services, including online or at the company's two other stores in Spokane.

The two CenturyLink customer service employees at Cheney have employment options, Zimmer said, including applying for positions within the company or good severance packages that include retraining.

The closing of Cheney Liquor is a bit more complicated. Owner Tillman Carr has been involved with other contract liquor storeowners in a lawsuit against the state, claiming the Liquor Control Board has not followed laws established in Initiative 1183 to preserve contract liquor stores.

I-1183, a measure privatizing liquor sales largely written and funded by major retailers such as Costco, passed in 2011 with almost 59 percent of the statewide vote. The initiative included a provision allowing the state to use the proceeds from the sale of state-owned stores and its central distribution center to "avert harm" to privately owned stores under contract by providing financial assistance.

The provision not only allowed the state to do this during the transition to privatization, which began June 1, 2012, but beyond that period as well.

Carr said this never happened, and provided an email from the Liquor Control Board claiming it viewed this provision as a "policy" statement rather than law because the initiative removed the board's authority to sell or appoint vendors to sell liquor.

The initiative imposed a 17 percent tax on the gross receipts from liquor sales, making it hard for stores like Cheney Liquor to compete with larger retailers such as Safeway, Bi Mart and Cheney Trading Company, Carr said. Some respite was supposed to be granted through a stipulation requiring bars and restaurants to purchase their liquor from contract stores, and limiting purchases from other vendors to about two cases.

What has happened, Carr said, is distributors have gone to restaurants and bars and offered to sell liquor to them at the same cost they sell to contract stores. One storeowner in Spokane Valley told Carr his distributor went to his customers, asked to see their invoices from him, and then offered to beat his prices.

"Nobody expected the distributors to be so aggressive," Carr said.

All these factors have made staying open impossible, so Carr and his wife Karen have decided to close, with all inventory being liquidated at reduced prices through August.

"We've had customers come in who say they voted for it (I-1183) and say they're sorry they did," Carr said. "We've had other customers come in here and say 'guys, you got screwed.'"

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.