By James Wells
The WA Premier Mark McGown said he is “uncomfortable” that Aldi has successfully won an appeal to sell liquor in its Harrisdale store after an appeal.
The Premier made the comments after the Aldi store at Harrisdale won an appeal to sell liquor – making it the third store within the German supermarket chain’s stores in Western Australia.
"The Liquor Commission and the Director of Liquor Licensing are independent and make these decisions, but personally I'm uncomfortable with it," Mr McGowan was reported to have said.
"The Director of Liquor Licensing takes into account all the community feedback and the like before making these decisions, but personally as I said I don't like alcohol been sold in supermarkets but it's something outside my control,” McGowan said.
The Aldi Harrisdale store, located in a suburb in south-eastern Perth with a population of 3807 people, initially had its proposal to sell wine as low as $2.79 across three different SKUs, even though a licence in the same area was granted to Woolworths.
The appeal was successful after the Liquor Commission ruled that both licences should not be considered as competing.
The licence issued to the Harrisdale store allows the sale of 60 wines, 16 beers, 15 spirits and four ciders is conditional on the bottles not being refrigerated, monitored by CCTV and clearly separated from the store’s grocery items.
“We are delighted with this decision,” said Aldi Western Australia managing director, Anna McGrath.
“[This] brings us one step closer to providing our WA customers with high-quality wine, beer and spirits at unbeatable value. We are reviewing the conditions that have been handed down and are considering operational complexities.
“Aldi began to offer liquor in our Victorian stores in 2003 and since this date, our offering has become a familiar and convenient part of a standard household shop. Our goal is to bring this same convenience, efficiency and quality range to shoppers in Western Australia.”
Aldi currently holds 260 liquor licences in its stores in New South Wales, Victoria, Canberra and Western Australia.
Aldi has a further four applications for liquor licences under consideration in Western Australia. Aldi has successfully secured licences at its Bulter and Wattle Grove stores and is currently appealing against a decision at its store in Joondalup where its liquor licence application was rejected.
Aldi has applied to sell alcohol at its Rockingham and Kalamunda, with Aldi claiming it offers consumers a unique takeaway service.