Ya know fear, we'll never see... eye-to-eye... Let's just agree that we will always disagree...
:)

"marge123
Jul 22, 2011 at 8:32 p.m.
Suggest removal

frogger(hannah)-or what ever you go by now---wow -just wow-more stupid then ever.

Who is hannah
This is silly to sell after 9 or not.
What about Texas- nothing on Sunday.
That must be okay huh?

Who cares what time it is you should be able to buy any hour. Too much government!

I am so weary of Goverment trying to control our lives...

just cut the crap with your repeating rhetorical garbage(entitlement). Noone even sniffed the word until the parrot bought it up! Again and again, ZERO original thought, and just regurgitating garble that doesnt even make any sense. GMOF3 you are NOT consistent in your slanted partisan life, You are NOT for choice, you are NOT for small business de-regulation , you are NOT for small govt. You only trumpet against issues when it best serves you!( and your bias and prejudice)Grow up and get a brain of your own, its folks like you that vote based on bad TV commercials and bad tv shows that has this country in peril.

Lawsuit? I certainly hope so, infringing on a small business owners rights to run his business as he sees fit, by masking it in some kind of false sense of public safety is ridiculous. Inconsistency and hypocricy runs deep in small town America.
Like the previous poster I believe there may be some other underlying issues here that aren't being said, but I will just have to be slent on that one.

Nope, sorry, don't buy either issue that Schuetz is trying to use to curtail this obviously middle-eastern business owner's wishes to sell beer until 12pm midnight like the state allows, for the follwing reason:

If it was a "public safety issue" he would require bars, restaurants and any other establishment (perhaps the bowling alley), to stop serving alcohol at 9m as well. Bars do not serve to underagers, just as liquor stores/convenience stores do no serve to minors. So if the city is THAT concerned with public safety, they should be more concerned with the perfectly legal drunk stumbling out of and getting into their cars at bar time, in the city limits.

If it was to force all retailers to be "consistent" (obviously to not promote any unfairness to any business) then the city should require all like-serviced business to close at the same time... i.e.-Kwik trip must close at the same time as Arndts (9pm), Red Zone must close at 8pm M-Th, 9pm on Fri and 2pm on Sat & Sun like Milton Family Restaurant. If Schuetz wants all to be consistent, he needs seek businesses to be consistent, consistently!

I don't smell fish, I smell a lawsuit, and a VERY large pocket for Mr Shaikh and Guy Fish at the cost of the Milton, WI taxpayers. Not something I see the city of Milton being able to adequately afford anytime soon. Tsk tsk!

Ok fear... one more time... "So, as long as HE gets to sell past 9pm, he doesn't care if others can or not. So he "feels he's entitled", get it? Sheesh, you're dense sometimes."....
I'm just sayin'

Phatfly - that was one of the most intelligent offerings on these comment boards that I've seen in quite a while.

Thank you for the clarification. Apparently I took your comments out of context. My bad.

How this is at all related to public safety? Not one bit IMO. So what people should drive to Fort intoxicated to get their beer at 10 pm? Trying to understand how this ordinance protects anyone. People will drive drunk whether beer is sold at 9 10 or 11, DUIs will not decrease because of this, so please tell me where has the case for public safety been made?

None has made a case here? REALLY???

BTW since when have republicans been for regulating anything? Unless it serves THEM! You are inconsistent and hypocritical, all day long!! And you call me dense?

Gmof3 and you are dense all the time. And quite inconsistent on just about every single issue. You do have some nerve calling me dense though, especially since you almost never have a single original thought. Whatever, support business when it suits your partisan views, and knock it down when..... (read between the lines) I can see what is going on here and it has NOTHING to do with public safety. You are pathetic, I dont care about your approval or anyones on here, I can see it all for what it is. You or anyone else havent made a case , not one bit how this will "protect" anyone. DUIs will not decrease and no one will be saved. Stop using words like entitlement to try to catch peoples eye, it just discredits everything you try to say.
Still trying to figure out how a BUSINESS OWNER asking the council to reconsider an absolutely stupid ordinance is acting as if you are entitled to ANYTHING. He paid for his attorney, so please explain how he is trying to be entitled to anything other than fair treament from a council that screwed him over? You cant. Eat your words grammmaw.

(frogger, are you behind on your medzzzzzz?)

frogger(hannah)-or what ever you go by now---wow -just wow-more stupid then ever.

I'm with grandys @ 9:12am. Alcohol is over advertised, over utilized, and entirely too widely available. That said, Amin is getting the shaft here - the City is not treating him fairly at all. Seems discriminatory.

Ummm.... He's entitled because the city council previously said he could. I would hold them to their word, and I like the idea of the ACLU getting involved.
I am willing to bet there is a conflict of interest and it might be a good idea for Amin Shaikh to hire an investigator to that effect, which I am sure will be easy to find. At the very least, even if he doesn't win, he would have ample lawsuit material. Assuming, of course, the city of Milton could be sued for a violation like this.

Simple solution: County-wide times set for beer sales.

Kwik trip on 51 no longer sells beer after 9pm,I know this because i work 2nd shift and would sometimes stop there.They say they are now considerd within the city limits.

What happened to this guy is ridiculous, and it appears without bounds: Schuetz also wrote that curtailing late beer sales was “in the interest of public safety.” Really? Because no one is driving drunk to the liquor store at noon? or how about at 8:45 pm? Is this the only excuse that most of us are willing, over and over, to swallow? Where is the boundary of "interest in public safety" and my rights as an individual to make my own choices? If the state knows so much better than we do ... why is this not a socialist society?

fearandrhetoric4dummies
... not that I NEED to validate ANYTHING I post on here, to you.... Entitlement: "Shaikh and his attorney, Guy Fish, asked the council Tuesday to consider amending the ordinance so it would require FUTURE beer retailers to comply with the 9 p.m. cutoff YET ALLOW SHAIKH to continue to sell beer until midnight."
So, as long as HE gets to sell past 9pm, he doesn't care if others can or not. So he "feels he's entitled", get it? Sheesh, you're dense sometimes.

Also, when you take something out of context, the meaning becomes lost. I related a complicated thought and some peeps missed the point.
FACT: People tend to see the world the same way they see themselves. So, all of the people who are against beer, are probably alcoholics in "recovery".
The rest: These people just don't see that there ARE people who can drink some beers when they get home from work or whatever."
That's why I referred to that adage.

"FACT: People tend to see the world the same way they see themselves. So, all of the people who are against beer, are probably alcoholics in "recovery"

Nope I buy my Margaritas before 9 pm. That simple. If I run out before 9 then no more until I buy more the NEXT day before 9pm."

I bet you would have loved to get more when the occaision struck, though. I noticed how you don't mention your feelings on the subject.

But all distracting discussion about what the drinkers are going to have to suffer through aside, which is pretty well off of the topic, the city council is definitely screwing with this guy.

"FACT: People tend to see the world the same way they see themselves. So, all of the people who are against beer, are probably alcoholics in "recovery".
Really? I could more likely suppose someone who never drank at all (think: temperance) thinking Shaikh shouldn't be selling beer after 9 (or at all, for that matter). But either supposition is really wildly speculative.
frogger,
You plan ahead to make sure you have ample margarita supplies, because you know you'll need them, so that means if I don't have beer in my fridge when I'm on my way home from dinner, or the movies, and decide it would be nice to relax with one, I am not entitled because I didn't plan to have one (in the comfort of my own home)? My own opinion: beer sales should be limited to the hours an establishment is open (and probably the relative soberness of the purchaser). Don't impose your schedule on me.
A spontaneous decision to have a beer (or personal hygiene need, just like with the women you mentioned) can not always be dictated by your 12 hour clock. That's why some stores are open 24 hours, to allow for individual preferences. Just like the powers that be in Milton made a "last minute" decision to disallow this man something they previously had allowed him. At the least, he should be "grandfathered" in.

All arguments about drinking aside, looks like Shaikh did the right thing trying to abide by the rules, and had the rules changed on him. That's the issue here, not the late-night beer run.

frogger, you seem pretty defensive for someone who wasn't even referred to in my post. I guess maybe I struck a nerve that was exposed. My bad. Now get over yourself and have a great day.

"Would also like to point out that anyone who really "needed" some beer would have to drive (or walk, stumble, whatever) even FARTHER, out of town, thereby increasing any risk of DUI (or damage as a result of operating under the influnce) or other public drunken-ness ticket."

So my point exactly- already drunk then WHY get more. So drunk driving to the gas station that is close by is better than far away??? Whatever.
If he is the only one open until 12 because the others close at 9 I guess Miltong thought this isn't a good idea just like the whole city of Janesville thinks.

This time of year it's barely even dark by 9 PM. Making is sound as though anyone wanting to buy beer at 10 or 11 PM is a drunk and likely to be DUI is just not fair to responsible drinkers. Isn't taking a sixpack home to enjoy while watching TV less dangerous than driving after drinking at the bar?

"Making people plan ahead for thier beer drinking, as in buying the beer on the way to work, where it will likely get warm without some kind of cooler (there ARE people who work shifts that do not allow them to buy things when they are done) is the major effect here"

REALLY????
So buy your beer 2 days before you run out on the way to work.
Can people really not manage their time.
Women have been having periods for years. We buy them BEFORE we need them. We don't run out at midnite to buy them because we didn't know "we ran out". WOW

"FACT: People tend to see the world the same way they see themselves. So, all of the people who are against beer, are probably alcoholics in "recovery"

Nope I buy my Margaritas before 9 pm. That simple. If I run out before 9 then no more until I buy more the NEXT day before 9pm.

I moved from the Janesville area to Minneapolis. To anyone that's not aware ... the state of MN is even more messed up than WI. There are cities here that force bars to close at 1 am. This has created after bar hot spots in the communities. I would like to point out that this means that people are going to private locations where there is no bouncing or employee to cut people off when they've had too much to drink. Then there is the no alcohol sales on Sunday (huge shocker for newcomers here). Though, Monday - Saturday you can buy beer anywhere until 10pm. Oh, you can buy 3.2 beer here on Sunday. What is 3.2 beer? Most of your macro brews (miller, coors, bud, etc) are 3.2 beer. It's the alcohol rating by weight, and not by volume. Anyone want to ponder why the large beer companies can do this? hmmmm? Why are there soooo many inconsistencies here? Well, religious puritan priorities mostly. What comes from most religious puritan priorities? A desire to control others and to bend them at any cost to the what's good for me is good for you ideologies. Also, then there is the illogical reasoning in government and legislation that if 1% of the people are doing something that we don't like ... well, let's stop 100% of the people from doing it, too, by making unnecessary legislation to create a false sense of security and comfort. What higher ground for us to stand on... when we make it illegal (it's the law which makes me right mentality). This is the same bs that happens everywhere. People start comparing things thinking that it makes sense. Oh, this is what they do ... let's do it too. No one really stops, I mean REALLY stops to think about ALL the consequences and then makes a completely unbiased decision on what's right and wrong. There is this mentality in America that all bad things can be removed from reality by creating laws. This regulating sales of liquor and beer by time is no different and is silly. Let the customers dictate how late a store should stay open not the state, city or federal government for that matter. This is a capitalist society, which means that the all mighty dollar takes precedence. If I want to BUY something at 4 am and I work a second or third shift lifestyle ... why should I be forced to conform to a life of timelines normally held by a first shift individual. Why? because politicians aren't second and third shift positions, normally. Now we get back into what's good for me is good for you bs. Remember that after an election people don't all-of-a-sudden become smarter because they are now an elected official. The government shutdown in MN has taught us all a very valuable lesson here ... coming from someone who isn't a lib, dfl or gop ... government has way too much involvement in our lives. When the rights of government and law enforcement start to automatically trump the rights of the people .... things have gone way too far in the wrong direction.

Milton's new city logo: We are NOT open For business.

Would also like to point out that anyone who really "needed" some beer would have to drive (or walk, stumble, whatever) even FARTHER, out of town, thereby increasing any risk of DUI (or damage as a result of operating under the influnce) or other public drunken-ness ticket. When a drunk wants what he wants, he will go to any length to get it. Ah, but making it harder for them to get alcohol would acutally be HELPING them get a life you say? I'll tell ya, forcing anything down anyone's throat has NEVER, EVER left someone with a desire to immediately aquiesce. And, due to dry-drunk syndrome, if they can't get it, they will be miserable to everyone around them until they DO get what they want, perhaps even enabling the drunk by going to get it themselves.
BTW, the whole time limit on alcohol sales is quite archaic to start with. Police departments everywhere already know that you can't force a drunk to stop unless to put them in an envirionment condusive to total control of said person. IE, jail or rehab.
Policing drunk drivers has becaome WAY more effective than in years past (when these laws were enacted at the state level) so it stands to reason that these very laws need to be abolished.
At the very least, fines will help the governmental income due to more tickets and the very worst is that there will a couple more drunks on the road risking everything just to get some more escape. Lookout people! Here come the comments of anti-change people.

I don't understand why the city feels the need to set "consistency in the community" given that the other retailers have CHOSEN to close at 9pm. Allowing them to sell until midnight was consistent. The fact that they chose not to is irrelevant. The city is now requiring the one remaining business owner to comply with what the other retailers have chosen to do? It doesn't make sense. I don't understand how saying it will ruin your business is a farce. There may be a minimum legal mark up of 6%, but no independent operator can afford to sell at 6%. Most convenience store retailers have a profit margin of between 15% and 24% on beer. If his investment in his beer cooler was $30k, even at the high end of 24% that still means he has to sell about $124k in beer just to break even on his investment, let alone profit. That is typically higher than the average non-interstate convenience store will sell in an entire year. Those bills will come due for the cooler and his inventory (legal credit terms on alcohol in WI is 15 day) long before he has seen any profit. The company I work for owns a convenience store in an area where we are just outside of the city limits and can sell to midnight, but all of the other stores that sell are within the city limits and have to stop at 9pm. I can tell you that the beer sales increase is high enough to justify adding an additional employee from 9pm to midnight. As someone with some familiarity with the industry, I can tell you this is a huge blow to his business. It wasn't right for the city to grant him the license and let him make the investment into the facilities, only to make changes to the laws a few months later that will affect only his business. Chances are if he had known that he would be limited to not selling past 9pm when he was granted the license, he would have made different decisions about how much money to invest in in his beer coolers. Losing those exponentially higher sales from 9pm-midnight will effect his entire timeline for breaking even on his investment and in the mean time he is going to have to pull funds from other profit centers to make it up. That is going to effect his business. If they city wanted to make this change they should have done so before they issued him his license or they should have waited to make it effective at the start of the next license year. Considering that his is the only business effected by this, the city is clearly directing this at him and not all Milton businesses with alcohol licenses. In my opinion this is something they should have dealt with at the point they were deciding on giving a license to an operator who would stay open until midnight, not after they granted the license and he made the investment.

FACT: People tend to see the world the same way they see themselves. So, all of the people who are against beer, are probably alcoholics in "recovery". These people just don't see that there ARE people who can drink some beers when they get home from work or whatever. Making people plan ahead for thier beer drinking, as in buying the beer on the way to work, where it will likely get warm without some kind of cooler (there ARE people who work shifts that do not allow them to buy things when they are done) is the major effect here. Assuming everyone will be drunk when they "need" more is truly an alcoholics version of reality. Get a grip on YOURSELVES. As far that extra two hours is concerned, beers sales will increase during this time period due to availablity and timing.
Based on what I read in the article, I think this an attempt at some sort of retribution or maybe just plain selfishness on the part of the city council. Has anyone looked for a conflict of interest? Is the person in question selling it as a "community safety" issue? Quite likely, I'm afraid. Add to the fact that there are other cities who do allow beer sales until midnight, and the ordinances have not changed in accordance with legal issues, and you have increased the potential for selfish interests in the city council of Milton.
Bottom line, this guy stands to make more money doing what he indicated to the city council what he would do when he applied for the liscense to start with. They haven't come up with any reason other than "community safety" for a reason (not much of one) and if they were to look at what other cities are handling this particular issue, they would see that the motive behind this move is not what they are trying to sell it as.
PS: I don't live in Rock Co. and I have never been to Milton.

Shame, shame, shame Milton City Council! Before they went out of business, the liquor store by Piggley Wiggley was allowed to sell beer until midnight. You can get beer for take out at any of the bars in Milton until midnight. This needs to be corrected before the ACLU files a lawsuit against the city and we taxpayers end up paying for it. If there is a lawsuit, those individuals responsible should have to pay all the costs!

The Milton City Council needs to correct their anti-business error as soon as possible.

Also if you haven't had enough beer by 9 pm and need more you need to look into some help!
I remember parties "running out of beer" and leavuing DRUNK to get to Lions after 9 to get some more.

"Frogger: You're wrong. You can buy beer in Janesville after 9pm. At Lyons on 14 and Kwik Trip on 51.
"
Yes I know that is the ONLY one because it is a cross the city line or something like that.

Good job, Jerry! Way to send business down the road; so to speak. I thought things were looking up in Milton, but it appears it's one step forward and two steps back. Shame on you.

Lion's and Kwik Trip on both sides of Janesville sell beer until midnight.They are outside of the city limits. Fort Atkinson also sell in gas stations until 12am. Where is the special treatment? I does appear he is being singled out after he made upgrades to play by the rules. If people wish to purchase beer after 9pm they will have to drive a bit farther is all. An inconvenience for local residents.

Regarding all of the FISHY commentss - it would seem that we might have a bacterial infection within the M city government that needs to be treated by a further investigative look at why this is happening. Time to contact a network news source that deals with unfair practices like this.

Frogger: You're wrong. You can buy beer in Janesville after 9pm. At Lyons on 14 and Kwik Trip on 51.
Amin is right. He is being treated unfairly. The council knew his plans. The approved his plans. He's right on another point. By dropping the cut-off time to 9pm, they are showing favortism to the other two stores. Mostly to Pig though.
I hope they reconsider the new ordinance and if not, I hope he does seek legal action against Milton. I smell a fish too!

The fact that the council is somehow "protecting the public safety" by limiting this guy's beer sales by 2 hours is absolutely laughable. Have there been a rash of drunken driving deaths in Milton because of these ordinances? Would be nice to be able to go get some beer if you ant to after 9pm, but I dont think there is any threat to public safety.
The fact that this guyu is saying there is also some threat to his business by losing 2 hours of beer sales is equally laughable to me. If your business hinges solely on those 2 hours of beer sales, you might want to think about a new line of work.
gmof3, entitled to do business??? I thought that you were a pro-business republitard? Guess not, you are obviously willing to use the word "entitled" to make any point , no matter how ridiculous it makes you look.
All that being said this i a pretty ridiculous move by the council only months after granting this guy a special license to sell later. My thoughts are if there was such a threat to local safety, they should have let him know that this issue may come up in the near future, and he may not want to make this a focal point of his business. Kind of some underhanded crap going on if you ask me. In a smaller community like Milton I can understand why there are some fishy smells in the air.
Iriss, your asserting that you post facts is equally laughable. You are not capable of such things, just illegal gambling. I am kind of surprised that you dont try betting someone a thousand dollars on the outcome of this. Love the garbled rhetoric in your posts, always good for a laugh, but facts? I had to chuckle.

I really can't abide this. If the other stores are worried, they can stay open later. Let the man sell his beer.

They been targeting this gas station for awhile.

What the article doesn't tell you is that there is a minimum mark-up law in Wisconsin of 6%. Beer being such a competitive item beer is generally only marked up 6-8%. That means he's only making $6-$8 on every $100 worth of beer they sell. Looking at the cooler size, there is probably only $10,000 worth of inventory in there. So saying this earlier closing will ruin your establishment is a farce when you do that math. Besides that, Woodman's in Janesville has way better prices and selection. $17.49 for a 24pk of Bud Light? You can get that cheaper at Woodman's with tax included and they'll generally have something for free or a rebate as well!

Stay open till 11 PM Pig and Beverage Mart and create a couple jobs - even if they're part-time. I don't think this is political in the pure sense. It's crony capitalism on a small town scale. Boss Hogg must be running the show.

Wisconsin

No (control state)

(bars)6 a.m-2 a.m. Sunday–Thursday, 2:30 a.m. Friday–Saturday, no closing time on New Year's Day.

(retail)8 a.m.–12 midnight for beer (some counties and municipalities only allow sales until 9 p.m. for beer), 8 a.m.–9 p.m. for liquor and wine

Yes

Wisconsin permits the consumption of alcohol by minors, provided they are being supervised by parents/guardians/spouses. Most municipalities have a uniform 9 p.m. restriction on all alcohol sales. Notable exceptions: La Crosse, Maple Bluff (near Madison), Baraboo (near the Dells). Supermarkets, liquor stores, and gas stations may sell liquor, wine, and beer

So It is up to the county to decide.
So couty CANoverride the state if they feel the need.

I smell a PIG not rat!!! Mr. Shaikh you just acquired a new beer customer, ME. I am fed up with this new extreme political approach to everything. Laws & rules use to be about public & civic interests within a community. Now their just used to smother competition, politically and industry related. Its an all or nothing mantra now, and I for one, have had enough! Including you PIG VOMIT!!!

You cannot buy stuff in Janesville past 9 pm either.
Move to Texas where you cannot purchase on SUNDAY at ALL!!

P - U, this totally stinks. They need to follow state law. So unfair.

But he's not the only one who can sell beer after 9pm - any of the other stores can, they CHOOSE to close earlier.

"The city, Shaikh said, “pulled the carpet right under me.”"

So you already knew the law????

"said he believes the ordinance unfairly targets him"

IF you are "the only one" how are you being treated differently?
Seems you WANT to be treated differenty as in you are the only one who can have beer past 9 pm.

If they really wanted uniformity, they'd allow sales up to midnight as per state law.

In the four months since Shaikh was granted his license to sell beer until midnight by the same city council that now changed the rules in the middle of the game, what has led the city council to believe that their needs to be uniformity among the beer sellers in the community. If they want uniformity, Shaikh should be granted a liquor license as well. Their actions completely contradict their statements. Something is obviously going on in Milton, and Shaikh is getting the short end of it.

Shaikh's getting the shaft. This is terrible. They had no concern over the 11 cutoff until he fixed his store up to compete. Someone on the Milton City Council is a rat.

gmaof3 - how do you figure he's receiving special treatment? He was playing by the rules and the council abruptly changed the rules.

Very, very fishy. Shame on Milton for discriminating against a business owner.

I was always under the assumption that 9pm WAS the cut off period. I don't think locking up the beer at 9pm is going to break the guy. Only Pig Wig and Bev Mart sell alcohol anyway.
Amin U. Shaikh, you're not "entitled" to special treatment, just because you're open longer than other retail stores. Flick that chip off your shoulders and get over it.

He's right, I also smell a fish.