This coming Thursday, the Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners will be hearing alcohol sales license renewal applications from three beer & wine outlets in and near the Olde Towne business district: The Center Market (on E Diamond Ave near Summit), the Duvall Center 7-11 (on MD355 across from the iHop, near the Fairgrounds) and the 7-Express (in Gaitherstown Plaza — with the iHop, the Old Country Buffet, Hancock Fabrics, etc). Of particular interest is the 7-11, which is the only 7-11 I know of in the county that sells alcohol (I think by law they can have one or two others, but I don’t know where they are).
More importantly, however, is the fact that they are, to my knowledge, the only retail alcohol outlet in the County to begin alcohol sales at 6:00 am, and they continue to sell it late into the night. Because of this — that if, for example, you need a drink at 6:00 or even 8:00 in the morning, this is the only place to go — this 7-11 draws people from a much wider area than would any other random, neighborhood convenience store, and an irritating number of those who are thus drawn seem to need to finish off the drink(s), toss the refuse into yards, and sometimes relieve themselves and/or take a nap, all in the residential neighborhood behind the store. Note that, while a small number of day laborers in the area do, especially if they don’t get hired for the day, participate in this activity, the problem is not by any means limited to day laborers.
The Thursday meetings are on the third floor of the County Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave, Rockville, and start with the 7-11 at 9:30 AM, with the 7-Express and Center Market following at half-hour intervals.
For more information on this Thursday’s meeting, read this article by Chris Robinson, from last Wednesday’s Gazette (note that the print edition had the wrong time, as did the online edition until a day or two ago). For more background on this issue, read this article from the February 7 Gazette, and my previous post here.