First store in county to sell liquor Wednesday - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

By Ann Wyatt Little  - bio | email

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Two months after the May 9th alcohol election, one Lubbock County store prepares to be the first to sell packaged liquor since the election.

After filing the proper paperwork it took the owner of Rick's Place about eight days to get his packaged liquor license from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and that piece of paper means things are changing around his store. "We've never been where we could legally sell liquor on this side of Lubbock and now we can," says Rick Claybrook, owner of Rick's Place.

And starting Wednesday, he will. "The lawsuit was filed against the City of Lubbock and the City of Wolfforth was not involved in it. That allowed us to go ahead and apply for a license," adds Claybrook.

For three days, Rick's staff moved nearly 10,000 bottles of wine to make room for their new inventory. They are going to bring 1,000 cases of packaged liquor into the store and he says he had to have a place to put it.

Selling liquor changes the way Claybrook does business. "Our hours are changing. By state law we have to close at 9 p.m. and not open on Sunday. That's the downside to doing what we did," adds Claybrook.

Claybook plans to put another packaged store inside the Lubbock City limits at 82nd and Iola and expects the paperwork to take longer the second time around. "I expect it's going to take longer because there will be so many applications to process," he adds.

When his store opened a couple years ago, he never thought he'd be the first to sell liquor in the area. "We would wind up being first store to legally sell a bottle of liquor in West Lubbock County in history of Lubbock County, it's pretty neat," says Claybrook.

Claybrook says nearly $100,000 worth of liquor will arrive Wednesday morning at 8:15 a.m. Stores inside the city limits can start applying for licenses August 10th.

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Lubbock County Liquor Sales Map Liquor by the drink boundary and packaged liquor sales map for Lubbock County. (You will need Adobe Acrobat to open this file)