Can mobile kiosks in South Carolina legally sell alcoholic beverages? Here’s what we know
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Right now, it’s legal to bring a beer or wine cooler on your sunset walk on Surfside Beach Pier.
This summer, that could get even easier if mobile vendors can sell you a beer right on the boardwalk.
As great as that idea sounds in theory, is it actually feasible with liquor and alcohol laws in South Carolina?
A few weeks ago, the Town of Surfside Beach passed a resolution that would allow at least two mobile kiosks on the pier to potentially sell alcohol this summer.
According to the South Carolina Department of Revenue, which oversees liquor licensing in the state, that’s not legal.
“One of those regulations is that the kiosk would have to be located in a permanent location with a permanent address,” SCDOR’s spokesperson Tim Smith said about the proposed beer-selling mobile vendors in Surfside. “The SCDOR would not issue a license to a mobile kiosk that did not have a permanent location and address.”
Smith added that each kiosk would need its own license.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Smith said the SCDOR has not received any alcohol license application from a potential licensee looking to operate a mobile kiosk on the Surfside Beach pier.
Surfside Beach’s mayor, Robert Krouse, said over the phone that this isn’t an issue. If the vendors can only legally sell food on the pier this summer, he said they’ll stick to that.
Town council meeting documents show that there are five local vendors that have submitted applications to town officials to operate outposts on the pier this summer. They are Surf Dawgs, Neal & Pam’s, Beach-n-Shades, Riccardi’s Italian Ice and Universal Caramels.
