Mashpee nip ban starts Thursday despite liquor store owner objections

Jessica Hill Cape Cod Times

Published Jun 29, 2021 

MASHPEE —On Thursday, customers will no longer be able to buy small bottles of Fireball, Dr. McGillicuddy’s or any other “nips” at Mashpee liquor stores. 

The Board of Selectmen held a discussion Monday about the ban on the sale of nips — a single-serving bottle of liquor — which they had approved November 2020 in an effort to reduce litter. But the board gave liquor store owners six months to come up with an alternative solution before the ban goes  into effect. 

Liquor store owners told selectmen about what steps they had taken to combat the littering problem hoping to get the ban repealed. After the discussion, selectmen voted 3-2 to go ahead with the ban, which goes into effect on Thursday. 

“We’re not out to hurt any business,” Chair Carol Sherman said in a phone interview Tuesday. “That is not the intention of this. We have to start somewhere, and the nips have become a problem. ... There’s other litter, yes, and we’ll address that. But right now we’re starting with the nips.” 

Sherman said she had advised liquor store owners to reach out to state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and Rep. David Vieira, R-Falmouth, for help, but she said they did not do so.  

Vice-Chair David Weeden and Selectman Thomas O’Hara voted to delay the ban to Jan. 1, but Sherman, Selectman John Cotton and Clerk Andrew Gottlieb voted against it, keeping the ban in place. 

“I don’t think we’re going after the right person,” O’Hara said in the meeting. “I think we should be going after the perpetrator who throws their trash on the side of the road.” 

Weeden said people would probably buy liquor in larger bottles and throw those on the road, or they will travel to surrounding towns to purchase nips. 

Mashpee followed in the footsteps of Falmouth, which banned nip sales starting in October 2021. 

Dena Rymsha, co-owner of Liberty Liquors, told the board the different steps the liquor industry in Mashpee has taken since the board originally voted to ban the sale of nips, such as implementing town-wide clean-ups and educating customers to not litter. 

“It is disappointing that after we clearly demonstrated how serious we are in addressing the issue, that the board of selectmen did not hold back,” Robert Mellion, executive director and general counsel of the Massachusetts Package Stores Association, said in a phone interview Tuesday. 

Four bills are currently before the state Legislature that would allow for a deposit to be added to miniature alcohol bottles, Mellion said, adding hearings on those bills will be coming up soon. He wished selectmen had waited to see what the state Legislature would do before making a decision. 

“Banning the product doesn’t incentivize people to remove it off the streets,” he said. “That’s a bad policy answer. The answer is to incentivize people to clean up cans. We could have gone that direction. … Bans just hurt businesses.” 

Zohaib Shahid, owner of the Mashpee Mart on 44 Falmouth Road also wished the town waited to see what the state would do before banning nips, which account for 50% to 60% of his business.

He estimates he currently has about $20,000 worth of nips in his store, and he might have to throw some of them out when the ban goes into effect. 

“It’s a waste,” he said Tuesday. “We’re going to lose money.” 

Johnny Rymsha, manager of South Cape Wine & Spirits on 19 Commercial St., said the ban will strip a big portion of the store’s yearly income and sales. The store still has a fair amount of nips left in stock, and he is hoping to get it all sold or distributed as soon as possible, he said. 

“Our hands are tied at this point,” Rymsha said Tuesday. “We should be able to survive, but it is definitely a large part of our business.” 

Mashpee’s ban has others nervous, too. 

Andrea Pendergast, co-owner of Cape Cod Package Store Fine Wine & Spirits in Centerville, said liquor stores all over Massachusetts are concerned that the ban could come to their town. They are trying to be proactive by pushing different initiatives such as cleanups in their own towns, Pendergast said. She and other liquor store owners did a litter cleanup in Barnstable recently to try to be a solution to the problem, she said. 

“It definitely hurts business regardless,” Pendergast said Tuesday. “It basically drives businesses out of state.”