Safeway pursues Internet wine sales out of AmCan office
By KERANA TODOROV
Register Staff Writer
Safeway could sell wine on the Internet from an office in American Canyon tucked inside an existing warehouse.
The American Canyon Planning Commission on Thursday gave Safeway the green light to open the Mezzetta Court office. The vote for the conditional use permit was 4-0.
From that office, Safeway, which also owns a grocery store in American Canyon, will only take orders for wines online from California residents, Safeway representatives told the Planning Commission.
The city wanted to make assurances that the sales tax would remain in American Canyon.
American Canyon Interim Planning Director Sandra Cleisz said Safeway has agreed that American Canyon will be the point-of-sale.
The office is inside the 378,000 square-foot warehouse, the majority of which is occupied by New Vine Logistics, a wine distributor.
“Safeway plans to use NVL to assist with warehousing and shipping logistics,” according to Safeway’s application with the city.
“How do you keep kids from ordering this stuff?” asked Commissioner Charlie Johnson.
Attorney Beth Aboulafia of Hinman and Carmichael LLP of San Francisco answered the company will require an adult signature for delivery. Shipments will be made by FedEx, according to Safeway.
Planning Commissioner Pamela Quiroz asked about the traffic. But Aboulafia said the use is already there, referring to the logistics company at the warehouse.
“The type of business is there,” she said.
It is unclear when the office will open.
“I don’t have timing right now,” said Marah Whiteaker, director of Safeway’s national direct business, after she left the meeting.
The American Canyon office is a test, she said. There could “potentially” be other offices, also said Whiteaker, who declined further comment.
According to the state Alcohol Beverage Control Board’s license, Safeway has applied obligates the company to be willing to sell wines at its location.
Safeway said the location of its new office will not be advertised, according to its application.
“Our intent is to comply with the law,” also said Aboulafia.
Customers could buy wine there, she said, “but we don’t expect many people to find their way over there.”
The Planning Commission approved the construction of the 378,000 square-foot Mezzetta Court building in 1997.
The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.
What gets your comment posted?
• Staying on topic
• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less
• Avoiding name-calling
• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger
What gets your comment deleted?
• Personal attacks
• Derogatory remarks
• Name-calling of any sort
• Going off-topic
• Hate speech
• Racially-insensitive comments
• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict
• Posting e-mail addresses
• Posting comments of a commercial nature
• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.
The fine print
- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.
- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.
- Comments may take several hours to be posted.
- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.
- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our
virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.
- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact
online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.
Demo Cracy wrote on Sep 30, 2007 9:35 AM: