Alcohol To Go Has Helped Restaurants Survive | Alcoholic Beverage Control California Regulatory Relief | DH035

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There’s no question about it: alcohol to go sales have helped restaurants survive the COVID-19 crisis.

Booze, Beer and other alcohol takeout options have been a lifeline for our Cali BBQ restaurant and others in California.

That salvation was thanks to regulatory relief from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency which, among other changes, has allowed certain licensees to sell sealed alcohol to go containers with food orders.

Our Cali BBQ Craft Cocktails and Beer Growlers To Go have been a huge hit with our guests. When we had our popular Tiger King Growler, some people even dressed up like characters from the Netflix documentary to pick theirs up.

Being able to continue selling alcohol during the coronavirus pandemic has helped us retain many of our amazing staff members during an incredibly difficult time for the restaurant business.

But the lifeline is still temporary. If the people of California want establishments like Cali BBQ to be able to continue selling alcohol to go with food, then it’ll take a legislative push to permanently change the law.

“I think everybody’s had to adjust,” California Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesperson John Carr said about the COVID-19 pandemic and public safety related shutdown orders on our Digital Hospitality podcast. “This has been unbelievable, I mean, we all had this just dropped on us and then we had to immediately ask ourselves, what can I do? What can I do to serve my community in the best way possible? How can I do it safely?”

“Because all of us want to see people get back to work. We want to see businesses reopen. It’s just that we have to make sure that we’re all cognizant and doing everything we can to keep people from getting this terrible disease that spreads. And there’s no vaccine yet. So we have to do all these things to keep people safe.”

“It’s definitely been a huge challenge,” he added. “And I know it’s been a huge challenge to the hospitality industry. You’ve felt it by like a tidal wave.”

Booze To Go In the US:

Restaurant owners and others involved in food and drink service have been making concerted efforts to change their states’ respective laws.

For some restaurants, being able to sell cocktails, beer, wine, and other drinks to go and for delivery, has helped them stay in business. If that were to suddenly change back to how it was before the regulations were rolled back, it could mean disaster for some who now rely on drink sales to stay afloat.

Cocktails and alcoholic drinks to go have helped struggling business all over the country.

In a May 5, 2020 Eater article by Jaya Saxena called “It’s Maybe Time to Make To-Go Cocktails Legal” the influential online publication raised an important question: Why hasn’t it been like this the whole time?

And why can’t we continue allowing people to pick up alcoholic drinks to go with food indefinitely.

“It seems to be working quite well, both for businesses and customers; businesses get to offload more product at a time when every penny counts, and customers get to enjoy mixologist-quality cocktails at home,” the Eater article states. “And it raises the question of why the hell it hasn’t been like this the whole time.

“The new, temporary liquor regulations have their own quirks and inconsistencies, but most states have made it easier to obtain alcohol: In New York and California, alcohol can be delivered or taken to-go, as long as it’s accompanied by food, and restaurants can sell whole bottles of wine and spirits. In Chicago, restaurants and bars can sell “sealed packaged goods in their original container,” like bottles of wine or cans of beer, but not pre-mixed cocktails. The same goes for Washington and Texas, though restaurants are selling “cocktail kits” so you can make your own at home.”

The push to keep alcohol to go sales is gathering steam all over the country.

In Missouri, the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control waived a restriction on certain to-go alcohol sales in April because of stay-at-home orders during the pandemic. That regulatory order was set to expire June 15, 2020, so restaurant owners in the state have been pushing for new legislation to make it permanent.

However, other states have not yet jumped on board the booze train. In Oregon, where the state controls alcohol, bars and restaurants have been asking to be able to sell cocktails to-go but lawmakers haven’t budged yet.

“Everybody’s hurting, but if you look specifically at unemployment in Oregon, the service industry has been hit 10-fold harder than any other,” said Portland cocktail bar owner Ricky Gomez of Palomar in an Oregonian article.

“When you take that bread away from a business like mine, we’re not going to be able to survive. And in fact we’re not surviving. We’re closed, and all my employees including myself are on unemployment.”

“The public health crisis caused by COVID-19 has created an ancillary economic crisis for the American restaurant industry,” The Oregonian’s Michael Russell wrote in the newspaper. “Over the six weeks since Gov. Kate Brown banned on-premises dining at restaurants and bars across the state, more than 80 percent of Oregon’s approximately 155,000 service industry workers have been laid off, according to a survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, accounting for nearly two-fifths of Oregon’s 334,000 laid-off workers.”

In San Diego and other California cities, restaurants began the process of opening with limited capacity. For the time being, the regulatory relief for to-go alcohol sales in California has stayed untouched as the state opens up.

“We’re going to be here. We’re going to be flexible. We’re going to be open-minded,” California Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman John Carr told Shawn Walchef on Digital Hospitality. “We’re gonna do what we can to serve the people and make sure that we do it in a way that’s safe… We want people to get back to work.”

How you can help:

A state agency like Alcoholic Beverage Control cannot make laws. That’s up to the state legislature.

In order to make alcohol to go sales permanent in California, enough people have to get enough momentum flowing that it reaches the Capitol legislative process on way to becoming law.

“We certainly heard a lot of people say that they want to want to keep these things,” John Carr of the ABC said on the Digital Hospitality podcast episode 035. “But the reality is that these things are temporary because ABC cannot change the law by itself or a regulatory agency. The law has to get changed by the Legislature.”

“I think people can pick up the phone and talk to their legislators or their council members or supervisors and say that this thing has helped … And that would go through the legislative process.”

Find your local California state representatives here and let them know you want a law allowing restaurants and businesses to be able to sell alcoholic drinks to go permanently.

Learn more about the Alcoholic Beverage Control Coronavirus Regulatory Relief on their FAQ page: https://www.abc.ca.gov/law-and-policy/coronavirus19/frequently-asked-questions.

Sign up for ABC email updates at: https://www.abc.ca.gov/contact/subscribe.

Full Interview Transcript | Alcoholic Beverage Control Public Information Officer John Carr

The following is an auto-generation transcript of the May 2020 conversation between Shawn Walchef (Cali BBQ Media) and John Carr (Alcoholic Beverage Control) for the Digital Hospitality podcast episode 035.

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Shawn Walchef [00:00:00] Welcome to Digital Hospitality, I’m your host, Shawn Walchef. This is a Cali BBQ Media production. Every week we talk about Digital Hospitality. You have to be a digital first. Business mobile first. You have to sell things through your website. And you also have to be in the hospitality business. The hospitality business has been severely impacted by COVID-19. Everything that we do in person, everything that we love is different. So you have to be able to do that online.

Shawn Walchef [00:00:29] Today, we have a very special guest from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Public Information Officer John Carr. Thank you for coming on the show today. We appreciate it.

John Carr [00:00:39] Happy to be here. Thanks for letting us have the opportunity to speak to all the great people who live in California.

Shawn Walchef [00:00:46] Well, I really appreciate it. You know, for for me, as a small business owner, I’ve owned a restaurant and a bar for 12 years in San Diego. And for us, the impetus for us to start the business was our type 47 liquor license. We took over an existing breakfast business and we brought a type 47 license and it allowed us to sell cocktails, beer and wine. It allowed us to expand our business and really take care of our community over here in a safe way. We’ve learned a lot in 12 years. We’ve certainly learned a lot in the last eight weeks with COVID-19. I’d like for you to give us just kind of an overview of how many liquor licenses are we talking about in the state of California?

John Carr [00:01:30] There’s over 93,000 locations that the ABC licenses, and that includes a great variety of businesses. I mean, anyone who sells, manufacturers, or distributes alcohol in the state of California is licensed by the ABC. So you can just think off the top of your head all these restaurants that we drive by, a lot of them have alcoholic beverage licenses. There’s convenience stores. There’s big grocery stores. There’s what some people might refer to as big box stores that have alcoholic beverage licenses. There’s the liquor stores that people refer to as “liquor stores.” We’ve got distilleries, wineries. You’ve got large beer manufacturers. And then, of course, over the last decade, there’s been this growth of small beer manufacturers. A lot of people refer to those as craft beer operators and makers. And so we’ve seen growth in that area and a lot of those places have restaurants. So there you have kind of a quick overview of the ABC’s bredth.

John Carr [00:02:40] But from San Diego, right on up to the Oregon state line, and points south down to the Mexican border, ABC is the sole issuer of alcoholic beverage licenses in the state of California. I know that a lot of them have to get those local business permits so that you can have a business, say, in the city of San Diego, or County of San Diego. But if you want to sell alcohol, make alcohol, distribute alcohol, then you have to have an ABC license.

Shawn Walchef [00:03:09] So now does that include also tech companies? Like I just became familiar with an app called the Saucy App where they’re actually selling alcohol directly to consumers kind of in the gig economy.

John Carr [00:03:22] Those you know, I need to actually do a little more research in that area, Shawn, for your listeners. But suffice it to say that anyone who is going to sell alcohol through whatever business, they’ve got to be licensed in California if they’re selling alcohol to customers within our state.

Shawn Walchef [00:03:43] So would that include DoorDash and UberEats and all the big (tech companies)?

John Carr [00:03:49] Well you know, I don’t know. I’d have to look specifically at those different corporations. I think a lot of people are thinking I go online with an app and I can order my alcohol, but it’s usually maybe through a restaurant, say, like yours, where they’re ordering the food and the alcohol. But the delivery app is actually the window for a patron to go in, make an order, buy, and then that stuff is delivered to people. We don’t license the delivery companies. They’re a totally separate entity. And we do have on our website what they call third party provider, so that you have the business and then they hire a delivery service to take their goods out to a customer. That third party delivery company is actually sort of a branch of the restaurant or the bar or the store where you have to purchase the alcohol so we don’t license the delivery companies. And I, just you know, as far as DoorDash, and UberEats, and all those places, I can’t say with 100 percent confidence that those places don’t have licenses, but I don’t believe they do.

Shawn Walchef [00:05:02] Yeah, that makes sense. I’d love for you to talk to talk to us about how does regulatory relief, how does that process happen? Because what Governor Gavin Newsom did, what your department did, was a huge benefit to businesses like ours. And I really want to thank you because our business, we’d been able to stay open the last eight weeks because of the alcohol to go specifically for us as a Type 47. But I know that is just a subsection of so much change that you guys have made in the last eight weeks to help licensees really stay on their feet so that they can continue to do what they’ve been in business to do.

John Carr [00:05:41] Well, first of all, good for you and your creativity with your business, Shawn. And to all the businesses that have figured out a way in this environment to turn their business basically upside down on the fly, I mean, to do a 180 and say, ‘OK, we’re no longer an inside patron operation, we’re a take out operation.’ And to be able to do that on the fly and keep people working, it’s just absolutely remarkable under these circumstances because the economic stress. My goodness. Look at all the people who are looking for work now that filed for unemployment. It has just been unbelievable what has occurred over the last 10 weeks. And none of us could have seen this type of tidal wave coming.

John Carr [00:06:30] But the process, you might be asking, well, how does this regulatory relief come about? Everything, and I’m so glad to hear it has helped some businesses. The process has basically been ABC leadership has said we need to keep an open door, an open mind. We need to listen to the people who are running businesses out there to figure out ideas from them, how they can run their operation, keep people on the payroll, and also provide food which has been deemed essential. And that and the governor expressed that in the original announcement that restaurants could stay open. But, you know, at first I think we’re at 50 patrons and it was 10 patrons and then it was no longer inside. And we got to go to take out. And then there were a lot of ideas brought to us. Well, can we sell mixed alcoholic beverages to go? And so we listened to the industry. We sat down and wrote our own ideas from an enforcement and regulatory perspective to help keep things safe. And the team came up with, you know, the ideas that we got from the creative business community. And then our experience in enforcement and regulation were voted up and then sent it up the chain to the governor to see if we could get temporary regulatory relief to allow businesses to do things like sell alcoholic beverages to go provided they were in a sealed container and transported in the trunk of a vehicle or in a safe part of the vehicle where it was away from passengers. So, you know, that’s kind of how it came about.

John Carr [00:08:11] Shawn, we heard from people like yourself and said, hey, look, we think we can we can at least keep some people going here. We can provide a service and we want to work with you. Here’s some ideas that we have, and so our doors still open. We’re still listening to ideas we just put out a regulatory relief notice yesterday talking about the potential expansion of premises areas so that these premises can distance people and set them further apart because they need more room. So how do you do that? And so we received a lot of ideas on that. We wrote that up. We put it out yesterday. And it applies, unfortunately, to only those locations where the stay at home orders have been lifted and local and state health officials have said, OK, it’s safe now to allow people to do inside dining. But hopefully we’re all getting closer to that. And that would at least from what we’ve heard from the industry, would give them some leeway to serve customers if they could have maybe a patio area or a parking lot or like maybe a shared patio with another business where they could kind of keep control on what’s going on there and make sure that alcohol isn’t getting into the hands of minors and that people aren’t imbibing too much and that they don’t put themselves and others in harm’s way. So we continue to listen to those ideas and we’re going to keep continuing to listen to those ideas.

Shawn Walchef [00:09:38] Yeah, I think for me, it’s just been fascinating as a small business owner, because typically the sentiment from other people that I talk to that run restaurants, they run bars, you know, the sentiment is that government is working against them. And this is the exact opposite, as you’ve been working so hard on our behalf to help us creatively. You don’t have the answers, but you’re giving us the opportunity to find our own answers in a safe way. And I think that’s the most important thing is because we all want to do what’s safe. That’s why we got into business to do. Especially those that are lucky to still be in business. I’m lucky to be in a position now where they can start reopening their dining rooms and start to consider using their patios or using their parking lot. Are there big organizations that are that are industry voices that are advocating on our behalf that.

John Carr [00:10:31] We’ve heard from all kinds of different organizations, Shawn. It’s that the door is open. We’re open to ideas and the whole leadership here has been all about: Be flexible. Let’s practice education. Let’s prefer education over enforcement during a pandemic when businesses are really struggling. Let’s make sure we listen to cities and counties who are on the ground and closer to the businesses that they serve and keep this open door. And let’s figure out how all of us can work together to get through this, because the reality is we all need each other. And we all need to get through this. You know, businesses need government to make sure there’s a level playing field. Government needs businesses because they pay the taxes to support government services, to help law enforcement, to help firefighters and pay for roads and all the things that all of us use. So it’s got to have a give and take and an open mind and a flexibility. And we’re committed to that and we’ll see where all this leads.

John Carr [00:11:48] We’ve been trying to push it out through our mass e-mail distribution list, Shawn, that anyone can sign onto really easy. It takes about 30 seconds. Just go on the home page of our website and there’s a little button called subscribe. Click it, and that way, when we send out a notice, you get it directly and instantly so you can go, ‘OK, I can read through this myself and figure out kind of what’s going on here. And if I have questions, I’m just gonna call the ABC and ask a clarification. Can I do this? I’m gonna get in trouble. Is this going to put me in a pickle?’ So we really do encourage that and we encourage people to call us or e-mail us whatever, whenever. We’re not 8 to 5, we’re listening. We’re looking at things. We’re trying to run as fast as we can. But to make sure that we’re crossing Ts, dotting I’s and making sure we’re going about this safely. As you stressed a number of times.

Shawn Walchef [00:12:39] Sure. And I think one of the important things that people tend to forget, and I know small business owners don’t forget, but there’s always the the other side of having the opportunity to sell something. So just before the call, I was talking to Kevin Howard, who’s my insurance broker at Rancho Mesa, and just talking about the liability side, because if we do extend our premise now, I need to make sure that my general liabilities are updated. So I’m sure there’s the insurance companies that also have to adjust because they are in business to make sure that we’re safe, but also that they’re safe, that they’re protected.

John Carr [00:13:16] Yeah, I mean, I think I think everybody’s had to adjust. This has been unbelievable, I mean, we all had this just dropped on us and then we had to immediately ask ourselves, what can I do? What can I do to serve my community in the best way possible? How can I do it safely? And how can we figure out a way that gets people back to work and gets them back to work safely? Because all of us want to see people get back to work. We want to see businesses reopen. It’s just that we have to make sure that we’re all cognizant and doing everything we can to keep people from getting this terrible disease that spreads. And there’s no vaccine yet. So we have to do all these things to keep people safe. It’s definitely been a huge challenge. And I know it’s been a huge challenge to the hospitality industry. You’ve felt it by like a tidal wave.

Shawn Walchef [00:14:18] Yeah, I mean, absolutely. For us, we we laid off 27 servers and bartenders, and those are people that we love. They’re part of our family. They’re part of what makes us tick. And we’re fortunate that we have a restaurant, we serve food so that we actually can sell alcohol to go. Those are the things that I know. I’m guessing from the outside that you’ve probably done more work in the last 10 weeks then … I don’t know. It’s just been so much work on your plate, which is not just on your side, but everybody’s side. I mean, we’re all literally running a brand new business. At least what we’re seeing is that you’re willing to adapt. And because you’re adapting, you’re allowing businesses to continue to do what we do and let us be creative, find different ways to do the things that we love to do to keep our community going, but to keep our businesses going.

Shawn Walchef [00:15:06] Have you seen in the last 10 weeks that there’s been any spike in the number of complaints towards any of the regulations that you have passed or things that maybe you said ‘we need to look at that and what we did there and possibly rein that back in?’

John Carr [00:15:23] No, we haven’t. We really haven’t had that many complaints. I mean, I think there’s 50,000 locations in California that in some way, shape or forms serve food and sell alcohol at locations where you go normally, typically in normal times, consume alcohol on the premises. Restaurant, bar, brewery, brewpub, I mean, wineries. All these different places, right? Out of all those places, I think when I was looking at the last count that was given to us from the enforcement side of the House, I think that as about a week and a half ago, they had visited about 111 locations throughout the state of California that had reopened and allowed dining-in in violation of the stay at home orders. The agents basically picked up the phone or we went and paid a visit and said, ‘hey, stay at home orders haven’t been lifted. You really need to turn to a takeout type business. You can’t have inside patrons yet. We all want to see it. Not there yet. So you’re gonna have to close that down for now. But compliance has been way up there. Very few have been obstinate and said, ‘no, we’re not going to shut down anyway.’ You know, I don’t want to get into that point really much, Shawn, because I think then people have this idea that’s the lay of the land. The lay the land has been people have been remarkably compliant. People have been gracious, open minded and have really picked up the phone and checked with us and said, ‘hey, can we do this or how can we help?’ And that’s been good.

John Carr [00:17:17] The only thing that I would like to just get out to anybody who has run a restaurant or liquor store and they use the delivery service services, Shawn, is to have really good communication with those people you hire to deliver the product, because we’ve noticed that there has been some problems with the delivery driver not double checking I.D. or not making sure that those lids are good and sealed. We’ve had some issues with that. And what we’re doing, we’re going about our own business on how we deal with those kinds of things. So I’m not going to get into all that. But it would be great if the restaurants just thought about the fact that when I hire that delivery app or I use a delivery service, I’m going to call them and tell them, look, I run this business and I want to make sure everything is right down the line. So please. Yeah. When you pick up the alcohol just make sure you check the I.D. and give it someone of a legal age. And we know they have to practice distancing and we get it. We also know delivery drivers are in a big hurry and they have provided a service during the pandemic that everyone looks at and says thank you, but we just need them to double check the I.D. and make sure that stuff is delivered safely.

Shawn Walchef [00:18:31] Yeah, I know that you’re completely correct. And I think one of the things, as restaurant owners, is that the reason that a lot of restaurant owners didn’t open up is because they didn’t believe that they could deliver the same quality food in either the way it was packaged or the way it’s presented. But that also goes for cocktails. You know, for us serving cocktails, it’s a craft cocktail. If we’re making a margarita, we want to make sure it’s the best margarita possible. And we also want to make sure it’s the best barbecue possible. So the amount of challenges that are happening with third party deliveries, you’re absolutely right. We do communicate with them, but they’re also adding new units. So, you know, when we call them, sometimes we’re not going to actually get the right person that we need to talk to. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to do it in a safe way. From what I see, from how much work you’ve been doing to continue not just phase one, but phase two, phase three, given the amount of regulations that you’ve eased up or added, it’s just been an incredible benefit to so many different businesses and the alcohol industry as a whole now. And I think that’s something that’s a testament. I’m sure you guys don’t get a bunch of thank you notes sent up there to thank you for all the hard work you’re doing. But I’m sure it’s nice to hear that, that there are stories in every community, in every village where people are making it, that were able to stay open. Really for the last eight weeks, it was a huge lifeline for us.

Shawn Walchef [00:19:55] One thing I did want to ask is, do you guys look at what other states do to find out ones that have allowed alcohol to go and how did they do it and if they did it well? Or do you just kind of operate? This is California and this is we’re gonna kind of rely on what we do here?

John Carr [00:20:11] We always look at information that comes in to us just like everybody else. We’re in the information age and there’s a lot of information out there. But I have to tell you, this was a California-driven process and it was California businesses that picked up the phone, that emailed, that came up with ideas that collaborated brought some things to our attention. And we also were thinking, what can we do on our end to serve the people whom government serves? So we just thought about that. How can we do this safely? How can we ease regulations back off and enforcement during a pandemic when businesses are just climbing this incredibly tall mountain. So it was California’s creative business community that was a main driver. And, in the end, ABC leadership and being willing to open the door, listen and then act. And when I say act, I mean write up the regulations, clean it up, get a living document that could be reviewed by the highest levels of government to allow for this temporary regulatory relief to go into effect. So we do have to give credit to all the creative businesses out there that came up with ideas and local city and county people had good ideas and then our own people who brought to the table their expertize in trying to write these things up, helping to make sense and then get them out. And then have our staff ready and willing to answer those calls and e-mails and understand that people are in a hurry to try to turn things around because they’re under the gun.

Shawn Walchef [00:22:01] Yeah, and I I know you probably can’t answer this, and I know that it’s written into law for a reason, then it makes sense because we’re living in an uncertain world and making a guarantee on something that isn’t guaranteed tomorrow or doesn’t make any sense. I know that these regulatory reliefs can be removed within the 10 day notice. Is that correct?

John Carr [00:22:20] That’s right.

Shawn Walchef [00:22:21] So I guess my question would be, if it does at some point deem that we are going to remove some of these regulations and let’s say that alcohol to go was removed and no longer offered, what would a small business owner be able to do to let them know that we would like to keep that into the future, that we think that actually serving alcohol to go is safer for us than serving it on premise, which we’ve actually found right now. It’s we’re much more comfortable checking Ids and sending a margarita home with somebody that has barbecue than knowing that they’re here watching a football game and maybe they have one margarita and a beer and then getting in a car and going. Well, what would you say to a business owner that wanted to keep that?

John Carr [00:23:07] Well, we certainly heard a lot of people say that they want to want to keep these things. But the reality is, is that these things are temporary because ABC cannot change the law by itself or a regulatory agency. The law has to get changed by the Legislature. So I think people can pick up the phone and talk to their other legislators or their council members or supervisors and say that this thing has helped their business or whatever and explain all of that. And that would go through the legislative process. That wouldn’t be something that we decide on our own. Like I said, Shawn, we’re a regulatory agency and we’re not a law making body.

Shawn Walchef [00:23:52] Well, on behalf of all the small business owners that I know and all the restaurants and bars that do serve food, the people that I’ve talked to, I do honestly want to say thank you to you and the leadership team and Governor Gavin Newsom. You know, a lot of this stuff goes under underreported in the news, but there are winning business stories, and especially in times of crisis, to know that you guys work so hard and I know people don’t reach out to tell you. Thank you. I do want to thank you for for the regulatory relief. I hope that, you know, we get back. Bars, get opened up. That we find we find a way to do this in a safe manner. But we don’t know. I mean, that’s the bottom line is no matter what, we’re reopening lots of California, lots of America, and we’re all going to do the best we can to make it to be safe and make sure that this virus doesn’t spread and we don’t have more hotspots. That we don’t become a place where we’re the reason why somebody gets to get sick. And that’s the last thing we want as a business. But we also want to be in business, you know, we want to be in business for the long term.

Shawn Walchef [00:24:56] So thank you very much for your time. I know you’re very busy. I appreciate the time today. Is there anything else you wanted to let our listeners know as far as the ABC and the best way to know what you guys are doing, or something you’ve never been able to say?

John Carr [00:25:12] No, that’s it. That’s it. It’s nice to hear that some businesses are able to, you know, make their way through this pandemic and keep their operations at least going. And hopefully we can see things open up more and you can bring more people back to work and all of us can see people going back to work that I’m sure we all know and all the different workplaces we miss seeing them. We like the work that they do to serve the public. So we just say we’re going to be here. We’re going to be flexible. We’re going to be open minded. We’re gonna do what we can to serve the people and make sure that we do it in a way that’s safe and that we want everyone to stay safe. We want people to get back to work, Shawn. And we are going to continue to, you know, enforce when we need to enforce. But our preference right now is education and working with communities and trying to help everybody get through this. And that’s not going to change.

Shawn Walchef [00:26:13] Yeah, well, we couldn’t be more proud of you guys as leadership. We’re very excited. Like I said, it’s not just our business that benefits. We buy growlers from a local manufacturer beverage factory. They can’t keep growlers in stock because of how many businesses around San Diego are coming to them to get growlers. So thank you on their behalf as well. You know, it’s one of those things you don’t realize when you do some regulatory relief, how far down that goes, that chain goes. But people there get to stay at work. Our team gets to stay at work. People that sell us the alcohol, they get to stay at work. So it really does have a huge impact. So thank you very much, John, for your time.

John Carr [00:26:53] All right. Thank you, Shawn, stay safe, be well and the same to all the great listeners that are following your program.

Shawn Walchef [00:27:00] I appreciate it. Thank you so much, John. Have a great day.

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