PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A recently-opened Portsmouth liquor store that’s among Virginia ABC’s top five stores statewide for thefts is being remodeled to have merchandise placed behind a counter.
A sign on the 1137 London Blvd. store (Store 110) shows the store is being remodeled through Thursday, Jan. 25.
ABC spokesperson Pat Kane told 10 On Your Side that all products will now go behind the counter, meaning customers will need to tell the store clerk what they want to buy. Workers will also install shatter-resistant glass on the store. They plan on monitoring sales and theft data to find out if moving to counter service is effective.
The cost to convert that store came in at around $72,000, according to Kane.
“That will be smart, that will be smart,” Antwan Everett said. He tried to shop there on Friday, only to find it is closed. “It will be better off because people are trying to make businesses out here and then stuff like that goes on, nobody wants to come here to make businesses. We got a whole lot of places for rent out here.”
Virginia ABC is working on what it calls a multipronged approach to tackling theft at its stores. They have not approved plans to convert other locations to counter service. All of their other locations in Hampton Roads are self-service stores.
Photos of inside the building show a new counter across the front of the store.
This particular ABC store made headlines just last week when WAVY confirmed it was the setting of a viral video in which a man steals several bottles by putting them down his pants. The bottles clank and clink underneath as the suspect, 41-year-old Diante E. Jackson, walks right out of the store. Police say he’s linked to more than $3,200 worth of stolen alcohol.
This change means Portsmouth will have now have two stores with counter service.
The other, Store 361 at 3014 Turnpike Road, is being remodeled after incurring more than $185,000 in losses in fiscal year 2023, Kane told the Virginia Mercury. That was the highest of any ABC location in the Commonwealth.
